How Can I Tell What I Have? - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 9 / Views: 1,132
markn Pillar of the Community Australia 1295 Posts	Posted 07/03/2006 01:50 am I won an auction for a Western Samoa 1978 10 Tala commemorating the death of of Captain Cook. These are listed in Krause at KM # 33 and KM # 33a. KM#33 is listed as 31.33g and 0.5000 silver. KM#33a is listed as 31.47g and 0.9250 silver. I work at an engineering company and we have some accurate scales here. I've weighed my coin and it comes out at 31.53g. Am I safe to say this is the 0.9250 fine coin? Report this Post to the Staff

gxseries Pillar of the Community Australia 3831 Posts	Posted 07/03/2006 03:15 am Hm that is indeed pretty tricky. I would expect the diameter of the 0.500 to be bigger... My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseries My numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htm Regularly updated at least once a month. Report this Post to the Staff
markn Pillar of the Community Australia 1295 Posts	Posted 07/03/2006 03:18 am Why would the diameter be bigger? Isn't that dependent on the density of the alloying material? Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16832 Posts	Posted 07/03/2006 05:34 am gxseries: I would have thought that they'd keep the diameter the same, to avoid additional die preparation work. If they needed to change the volume of the coin because of density differences between sterling and 50% silver, they'd alter the thickness. mnemtsas: You're probably right, but the easiest way to tell them apart is the finish. KM33 is Unc, 33a is proof - presumably the proofs have a modern proof-like "cameo effect", the Uncs don't. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
gxseries Pillar of the Community Australia 3831 Posts	Posted 07/03/2006 05:48 am Since the density of silver is higher, I expect the coin to be more compact, unless you are using another metal that has higher density like gold or lead etc, but I find that very unlikely to occur. Mnemtsas, I googled it up on the net and the only infomation that I get is that it might be 38.74mm in diameter and I worked out that it is 25.8mm in thickness. Maybe a capilier might help... My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseries My numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htm Regularly updated at least once a month. Report this Post to the Staff
ageka Pillar of the Community Belgium 2078 Posts	Posted 07/03/2006 05:53 am Did anyone ever try measuring conductivity with one of those electronic multimeters ? I am told modern vending machines use this amongst all other measures to find fake coins Report this Post to the Staff
markn Pillar of the Community Australia 1295 Posts	Posted 07/03/2006 6:43 pm What does 'cameo effect' mean? Measuring the diameter is fine but measuring the thickness isn't possible due to the image on the coin. The best you could do is measure the thickness at the rim but the mean thickness of the coin is almost certainly different to this. Edited by markn 07/03/2006 6:45 pm Report this Post to the Staff
Dewayne76 Pillar of the Community United States 590 Posts	Posted 07/03/2006 6:55 pm Maybe they don't have a good quality control dept. so the size may not be consistant. Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16832 Posts	Posted 07/03/2006 8:45 pm quote: Originally posted by mnemtsas What does 'cameo effect' mean? The Unc specimens (.500 silver) ought to have "uniform shininess" across the design - just like Unc circulating coins normally have. With the dies for Proof coins, parts of the design are usually treated (either with acid or sandblasting) to create a frosty, matte effect, while the background is mirror-polished. The contrast between the frosted design and mirror background field is called the 'cameo effect'. For the coin in ths example, the main design element is a ship, which on the proof coins I presume would be frosted. Do the sails look "white", or are they shiny just like the background sky? Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
markn Pillar of the Community Australia 1295 Posts	Posted 07/05/2006 01:19 am OK well its not frosted so I guess that it is the straight 0.5000 example. darn it. Anyone have a mass spectrometer or a scanning electron microscope I can use? Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 9 / Views: 1,132

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