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Switzerland 2 Fr 1857 Paper

Started by Henk, March 13, 2023, 11:09:23 AM

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Henk

The Swiss 2 Francs coins of 1857 are, with a mintage of only 622 pieces, rare. I do not own one. What I do have is a specimen struck in thick paper. Separate strikes of both obverse and reverse. It came with a paper ticket describing it came from the Sammlung Horn. This likely refers to the collection of Ernst Otto Horn (1880-1945) of Meissen, Germany. He was a collector of almost anyting and his coin, medal and seal collection counted 65,000 pieces. Ther is a Wikipedia page about him. A large part of his coin collection is now in the Dresden Coin Cabinet also a number of his coins were sold in Künker auctions. I could not find my restrike listed however. Probably it was part of one of the lost sold, e.g. Auction 278 (june 2016) lot 2295 which contained hundreds of 19-20th century coins including many from Switzerland. I could not find this restrike in paper listed anywhere so I assume it is rarer than the original coin!
Horn 2F 1857.jpg
Horn 2F 1857 Ticket.jpg 

Figleaf

Way back when, collectors would make fillers for coins they couldn't afford from genuine pieces that e.g. auctioneers would allow them to handle. The most common filler was a rubbing. Fancy fillers for collectors with coin cabinets were made of painted gypsum. This embossed paper version is in-between. You can see how I imagine it was made in the YouTube video, between minutes 6 and 8:55.


Note that you only need the right, pencil shaped tools, some sticky tape or an improvised clamp and a piece of thick paper to do this, though a circular knife would probably come in handy too.

What I like especially about your filler is its pedigree.
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Henk

Interesting video. I do not think my "coin" was made in this way. I think it was made using the actual dies also used for coinage. It certainly was not made using an original coin. By using paper instead of metal (lead) the possible use of the restrike as a coin was prevented and also legal/accounting problems if it was struck in silver. For Dutch coins there also are specimen strikings in paper but these were used for trials or specimens of new designs. In fact I do not know of any regular coin for which specimens in paper exist.

Figleaf

May I remind you of a whole series of booklets originating in Germany with - mostly European - coins printed in relief and colour on each page? There is a thread on them somewhere in WoC, but I can't find it.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Henk

I am aware of these but these are copies and were not made with original dies.