Very worn out 20 Swiss francs at melting value, thoughts?

[mae]

I drove by a guy's house to pick some coins and also picked this one that was outside of the deal. I didn't really pay much attention to it but now that I'm checking it out after coming home I'm a bit disappointed with how it looks. Still, I paid the spot for the melting content. Did I make a mistake?

 

[HawkHybrid]

looks pitted as opposed to worn.

I would test the gold content, maybe an sg test?

 

HH

[trp]

I wouldn’t view it as a mistake if I’d bought it for the scrap price, but it all depends on what you wanted it for. You’ll at least get your money back or more if you hold on to it for a bit. I don’t think by the pictures it’s that bad, but I don’t mind scruffy gold coins adds to the history a little. 

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Added 0 minutes later...

2 minutes ago, HawkHybrid said:

looks pitted as opposed to worn.

I would test the gold content, maybe an sg test?

 

HH

Also agree with this 👍 

[Toshunya86]

I don't think it is in bad state.

But I'd be worried it s a counterfeit - although I can't really say why 

[DoubleEagle]

The soft (blurry) details and pits mark this coin as a possible cast fake. Is it gold? Looks like gold. If gold, there is no problem. Weigh it on accurate scale somewhere and measure to compare with known specifications. Cast gold fakes are often made from 22 or 24k gold, and also sometimes they are made from some other materials. Proper weight is 6.45 gr with 5.81 gr pure gold. Diameter is 21mm. Thickness is 1.25 mm.

[Norskgeld]

Looks a bit strange.

The vertical lines in the shield are almost gone yet they are not as high relief as the cross or the shield edges so doesn't look like wear and tear.

Almost looks like it's been in some kind of corrosive liquid...or as @DoubleEagle suggests.

[sixgun]

These look very reminiscent of the sovereigns which appeared for sale the other day. There were cast 'coins' - the spurs were visible in the photos of the 'coins.' An extremely clumsy attempt to con the forum - it was spotted in a heartbeat. i strongly suspect these are fakes. Try selling one at a dealers - you will find out soon enough then.

 

[Goldenbear]

This is one of my favourite coins, I had 20+ of these all bought as bullion. One of the things I admired about them however was how well they all had held up over so many years. Even as bullion purchases they were all in far better condition then this coin so looking at it id be quite concerned just knowing how durable they have been. The sides are a big give away that something is seriously up here, those stars have been so crisp on every one of these coins ive owned. It really doesn’t look right but as others have said you need to test it against all specs before fully commiting to it been fake.

Edit:

Ive just had a look at a few images of some I sold earlier in the year (sorry these are video stills so not ideal). You can see still see however how the details on the coin you bought really are extremely undefined in comparison. They are thicker and almost as blurred rather then crisp. This doesn’t seem a product of its condition but the coins actual manufacture. Id want to take it back given even as bullion it would raise doubts.

[mae]

Nah.. 😞 I'm almost sure now it's not a real coin. Thank you guys for all the feedback. Now, it looks like Gold and the ping test sounds very well. Also the color seems more bright than the actual coin. As far as I know the guy inherited the coin from his grandfather that had it as a jewellery piece, a pendant or something. He even gave me a leather bag with the the name of a jewellery on it. I suspect it's a cast coin probably mixed in with silver as a golden souvenir or something. I can't understand why someone would manufacture the coin to include the same or more Gold than in the original coin instead of just get the actual coin. Hopefully it has more gold content than the original coin, I ordered a scale to do a gravity test... we'll see.

If anyone melting down his own gold is interested in it just let me know. I got also a sovereign that is also looking like it was poured 😁. So it's potentially around 14g in gold.

Lesson learned: if you plan to buy in the street, get some tooling and pay attention. In this particular case I don't think the guy was trying to fool me, he had little knowledge about what he was selling. I've bought a lot on eBay and such and I've been very lucky for now so I think I got overconfident.