Posted 14 years ago
renoir911
(36 items)
This is a 20 FR HELVETIA gold coin. The back of the coin shows the date, 1925 and a "B" to the right of the date.
Old Swiss gold coin ?
I welcome your expertise in identifying this coin.
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The coin you have was minted like you said, in 1925. The letter B to the right of the date is the mint location, which is Bern Switzerland. The coin is called a "Helvetia" named after the maiden located on the obverse. She is known as "The Swiss Miss of Swiss lore. It measures 21mm across The weight is 6.4516 grams and has a pure gold content of .1867 ounces. The reverse features an ornate Swiss cross on an ornate Swiss shield superimposed on an oak branch tied with ribbons. The value is to the left and right of the shield and is 20 Francs, with the date of minting centered below. The coin appears to be in very high AU condition and possibly a BU example. All in all it is a very nice example of a coin that its brothers and sisters were the workhorse of not only the Swiss economy but the world economy as well. (of course due to its great condition, this coin saw very little, if any circulation) It's a coin popular with foreign gold coin collectors and is commonly bought by bullion investors as well. It's a great "mid size" gold coin that contains almost 1/5th of an ounce of pure gold. I hope this helps solve your mystery. I just posted a group of misc foreign gold of which there are two examples just like the one you have here. A very nice coin you have.
Thank you for your note bahamaboy.
May I ask what is meant by "AU" and "BU" ?
Thanks
AU is an abbreviation for "almost uncirculated" BU is short for "brilliant uncirculated". If the coins are graded by a third party grader (sealed in a plastic tamper proof holder) there are 4 grades of AU. All coins are graded on a scale from 1-70 with a 70 being a perfect coin and only newer coins will grade that high. (post 1986) AU has 4 grades of AU. Au-50, AU-53, AU-55 & AU-58. There is no such thing as for example AU-52 or AU-57 or AU-51 or any other besides the ones listed above. MS (short for "mint state") or BU start at MS/BU-60 and go MS/BU 61, 62, 63, 64, 65 etc all the way up to MS-70
Very good and thank you once again for your expert knowledge. The coin does look like it has never seen much use. It's been in the family for ever.
Thanks again.
The reason I said "a possible AU coin was the fact that there are some minor/borderline major scuffs to Helvetia cheek on the obverse and also a couple of lite contact marks and scratches on the reverse "on and around the shield". There are also some lite contact marks in the fields around the date on the reverse as well. These marks/scuffs would probably mean the coin would grade (if it's NOT been cleaned) as an AU- 55-58
P.S. Never try to clean a coin with anything. Even if you were to wipe it with a dry cloth, an expert could tell right away and this could bring the value down considerably. NEVER clean any coin EVER in the hopes of improving the looks or the value. Many do this not knowing that they are destroying the value of the piece. This rule applies to ANY COIN anywhere anytime. Just fyi.
My apologies for the long delay in responding, divorce will do that to a person. Again, thank you bahamaboy for your expert advice and info. I sure appreciate you taking the time to provide this valuable information and will do as you say. Have a great day.