Mystery 1/12th Annas

[bagerap]

Out of curiosity I've just bought 30 1/12th Annas which were described as silver. I'm in the process of moving house so have no scanner or scales to hand. I do have a large rare earth magnet which confirms that these are not nickel plated, so why would these be silver plated. For jewellery perhaps?



I'm working from a very slow mobile dongle so this may not upload very well, but I'd be interested in any views you have.
Bob

[malj1]

30 pieces of silver - very biblical! 

I have only come across this piece that I have not reached a conclusion about..
A Guernsey one Double 1893 that is nickel, or plated?

[repindia]

I have stated before and now have proof that all these are plated coins and not what the sellers are claiming. Please see the attached picture which clearly shows the coin is plated. I purchased such a "pattern" coin and then proceeded to acid treat the surfaces since I was sure this was not Ni and a pattern and sure enough was able to peel off some of the outer layer to expose the copper underneath. 

Apologies for the quality of the pictures since these were taken by my mobile phone's camera. I will try to take some better pictures and post them too.

[bagerap]

As I said, I don't dispute that these are plated. The coin was only issued in bronze, so why would this have been done, and to so many coins?

[repindia]

As I said, I don't dispute that these are plated. The coin was only issued in bronze, so why would this have been done, and to so many coins?

I think this is to fool collectors. There were many such "pattern" coins on eBay and they sold for quite a bit of money. The Australian seller who was hawking these got these "authenticated" by an expert who has a nice website on British India coins. Unfortunately the individual did not do a destructive test of these pieces and pronounced them genuine and a lot of unsuspecting buyers were fleeced out of their hard earned money.

[Coinsforever]

I purchased such a "pattern" coin

1/12 Anna GV - 1926 , I've two coins in my collection and in year 1922 coins were not struck . The series was issued from 1912- 1936 .

Could you elaborate further to understand what are specific features of the "pattern" coin of GV -1926 posted here . Why it is termed as "pattern" just bcoz plated with another coating of metal on parent metal .

Cheers

[brokencompass]

The coin has no different in design with the regular 1/12 anna so this plated coin could be mistaken for a OMS but not a pattern in my opinion.

[repindia]

1/12 Anna GV - 1926 , I've two coins in my collection and in year 1922 coins were not struck . The series was issued from 1912- 1936 .

Could you elaborate further to understand what are specific features of the "pattern" coin of GV -1926 posted here . Why it is termed as "pattern" just bcoz plated with another coating of metal on parent metal .

Cheers

It could be claimed (and probably was in the eBay auction) that the mint was experimenting with a new metal to replace the current one and so tried out these patterns. These were found not suitable and so were not approved. 

I had bought these a long while back when the other dates were not yet plated and so this story was plausible. I had my doubts when I saw two dates being hawked as patterns and these were also not mentioned in Pridmore.