Question About A Golden Ducat

to the Community!

I agree with Swamperbob.
I didn't know about what was done to get around post 1933 import restrictions. Interesting.

When I first saw the OP's pictures, I was immediately suspicious about fake.
Equally, it does not surprise me one little bit that it may me of .999 pure gold = 'jeweler's copy'. XRF should confirm.
Most bullion dealers and gold buyers have hand held XRF instruments.

That crown you pictured is exactly the depiction of the crown that I thought was being used. The punch is kind of small to see it the cross tips. The main elements however do correspond.

I went to sell the coin to a jeweller and he told me that the counterstamp is from the Kingdom of Bulgaria and says A1 which means that the coin is made out of 22 karat gold.

Was the jeweler able to supply a source for the information that he gave you? I am not aware of an "A1" gold classification. In about 1880, Bulgaria adopted the principles of the LMU (Latin Monetary Union) to match the European standards and they used that standard into WWI. It involved defacto bi-mentalism where silver was used internally but gold was used internationally.

There is no mention of a method of classification using terms like A1 that I could locate.

22K gold (917 fine) is significantly lower in gold content than the standard for the originals (986 fine) and further below the 999 fine standard for most jewelry counterfeits.

So did the jeweler indicate why such a copy coin was manufactured? Was it a circulating counterfeit?

I suspect, because I am always suspicious, that it might be simply a convenient story that he made up to lower the buy price by 7 or 8%.

Bob

Wonderful reference material!

I find it interesting there is no .900 or .925.

Do you know the name of the book?

Looks like a table of Jewelers marks - hallmarks etc.

Each of the 6 punches corresponds somewhat roughly with the Karat system of gold used worldwide.

As we all know pure gold is 24 karat. That is 24/24 or 1000 fine and it is never used for jewelry because it is too soft. There is however a 24K stamp and likely would be used on an original coin because it is the closest most jewelers could get in the late 1800s.

The purest gold typically used by jewelers is 22 karat. That is 22/24 or 916.66 fine. The A1 stamp says 920 a bit high but a good approximation.

The next common standard is 20K. That is 20/24 or 833.33... fine. The A2 stamp 840 (?) is therefore an indication of 20K. Again a bit high.

The next jewelers standard is 18K which is 18/24 or 750 fine which matches A3 exactly.

A4 584 corresponds with roughly 14K which is 583.33... fine.

A5 500 is 12K which is 500 fine exactly.

There is no 10K recorded in this system which the US and European standards accept as the lowest Karat gold that can actually be referred to as "gold". Ten Karat gold is normal for gold fillings and wedding rings due to the wear normally associated with those uses.

A6 330 is roughly 8K gold 333.33 fine. Once again slightly low.

So the chart is clearly a jeweler's chart. It would normally be used to mark gold content of items made by the jeweler.

Perhaps it proves the origin of a "counterfeit" as Bulgarian which would be a collectable variety. Or it may have been a jeweler's attempt to classify the coin by purity.

So, the jeweler was either in error about the assay or he was a counterfeiter. Interesting. VERY Interesting for a counterfeit collector like myself.

The coin should be XRF tested to be sure.