r/SilverCrowns

They must’ve sent a dude up on a ladder for that view 🪜

Emperor Franz Joseph started his reign in Vienna in 1848 but it was only after the agreement with his Hungarian subjects in 1867 that he was crowned in Budapest as the King of Hungary with the Crown of Saint Stephen. The 40th anniversary was celebrated with this commemorative coin struck at Kormocbanya (now Kremnica in Slovakia) in 300 thousand.

The coin is silver and it is not merely a crown but five hundred of them. This is the first of them, celebrating the poet Karel Erben and his volume of poetry "A Bouquet of National Tales". One only is issued per year, most recent issues celebrate local Czech industry - airplanes, cars, tramways, and the like. 25 grams of 0.900 pure silver, exactly like the LMU 5 francs but the diameter is 40 instead of 37mm.

Gourgeus coin in pretty good example for one thats like this to be fair this piece also isnt mine

I was traveling through Hamburg and got a little unreasonable. Second one is not a crown but got it at the same time (2 Marks - Frederick III). Frederick III was only emperor for 99 days.

A 1743 Columnario 8 Reales and an 1844 Zacatecas 8 Reales

Featuring King William III (r. 1689-1702), seven years prior to the Acts of Union merging England and Scotland into Great Britain. Sterling silver, cost me $80.

I have gotten fascinated with the use of Mexican, British, old Spanish and other nations silver and gold coins in the US until the Coinage Act of 1857 made those coins no longer legal tender. At times as many 80% of the silver coins in the US were from other nations. After the revolutions had settled down and the mines and mints reopened in the 1824 ~ 1825 time frame, Mexican coins became quite common in the US.

I am slowly working on birth year type sets for my paternal ancestors back 5 generations, starting with the one who would move to Wisconsin after the American Civil War and start the farm I grew up on. John was born in 1840 in upper state New York and would likely have seen more of these than actual US Seated Liberty coins.

As a result, I'm adding a set of 8, 4, 2, 1, 1/2 & 1/4 Reales to those year sets, beginning with this well circulated 1840 8 Reals Mo ML as representative of what he might have seen in commerce.

Pretty nice barely a crown tho sadly bought this before I knew that it was cleaned payed 60$ not so much looks AU53 to AU55 to me

One of the nicest coins Ive ever seen insanely desirable Id estimate this around 700$ to 800$ also what do you think about this coin would you want to own it?

Obverse

Crowned shield of San Marino with the three towers of the city within laurel wreath. Date below

Reverse

San Marino standing with a scroll in his hand.

On the line the name of the author.

Below, in the exergue the value between a rosette and the mintmark.

Edge

Script: Latin

Lettering: LIBERTAS * LIBERTAS

In July 1873, workers at the Philadelphia Mint prepared to strike a strange new American coin. It carried the familiar eagle and the word DOLLAR, yet it was not principally intended for Americans.
It was a weapon in a commercial war being fought thousands of kilometres away—in the counting houses, customs offices and waterfront markets of Qing China.
America challenges the Mexican dollar
For centuries, Chinese merchants had trusted Spanish-American pieces of eight and their successor, the Mexican 8 reales. Mexican silver crossed the Pacific through Manila and became so familiar that merchants recognized its design, weight and sound. A coin might bear a foreign king or republican eagle, but in China it was accepted because generations of traders knew its silver was reliable.
By the 1870s, American mines were producing enormous quantities of silver. Yet American bullion arriving in China was often discounted, while Mexican dollars commanded a premium. Washington’s solution was to manufacture a rival specifically for the Asian market.
The Coinage Act was signed on 12 February 1873. Mint Director Henry Linderman then hurried production because Mexico was reportedly preparing to restore an older coin design already popular in Asia.
On 11 July 1873, the first US Trade Dollars were ceremonially struck in Philadelphia. Three days later, an initial delivery of 40,000 coins left the Mint.
Each weighed 420 grains—27.22 grams—and contained 90% silver. It was eight grains heavier than the ordinary American silver dollar. Its reverse advertised its contents like a miniature bullion certificate:
420 GRAINS — 900 FINE
The statement mattered more in China than “ONE DOLLAR.” Chinese commerce operated largely by silver weight, not unquestioning faith in a foreign government’s denomination.
Liberty faces Asia
William Barber’s obverse shows Liberty seated upon bales of merchandise beside the sea. Behind her stands a sheaf of American grain. She extends an olive branch towards the left—the direction intended to symbolize Asia—offering peaceful commerce across the Pacific.
It is essentially America presenting itself to China:
Here are our crops, our manufactured goods, our silver and our friendship.
But China was not obliged to believe the message.
The Eagle Dollar goes on trial
Most of the 1873 production travelled westward, particularly from San Francisco, across the Pacific to Hong Kong and the ports of southern China.
There, the new “Eagle Dollar” was tested.
At Canton in October 1873, officials weighed and assayed it. Their test reported a fineness of .8961, slightly below the stated .900—probably reflecting the limitations of the local assay process rather than dishonest American manufacture. Nevertheless, the coin was approved for commerce.
A remarkable proclamation informed merchants, soldiers and the public that the Eagle Trade Dollar had been examined and could be accepted for customs duties and ordinary circulation. Counterfeiters were warned that they would be arrested and punished. The proclamation ended with a wonderfully severe instruction: everyone was to obey, and there was to be no disobedience.
For a brief moment, the United States appeared to have done it. An American coin had been officially tested on Chinese soil and admitted into the immense Asian silver economy.
The merchants conduct their own tests
Official approval did not eliminate private caution.
When a Trade Dollar reached a merchant, money changer or silversmith, he might weigh it, inspect its colour and strike it to hear its ring. If satisfied, he could punch his personal chop mark into the surface.
That mark effectively declared:
I tested this piece and accepted its silver.
A second merchant might add another chop. Eventually, heavily travelled coins accumulated a chaotic record of Chinese characters, geometric symbols and deep punches—an informal passport filled with the visas of successive owners.
The coin’s 上 chop belongs to this world. We cannot identify the person or firm that applied it, and it should not automatically be interpreted as the ordinary word “up.” In this setting, its primary purpose was likely identification or validation.
The American eagle certified the coin in Washington.
The 上 punch certified it again in Asia.
Interestingly, chops were not always welcomed. In a dispatch dated 4 March 1878, the American consul at Foochow reported that unchopped Trade Dollars were “eagerly sought” and even preferred there to Mexican dollars. He complained that coins arriving from Hong Kong and Canton were frequently mutilated by chopping. This reveals how varied Chinese acceptance was: in one port, a chop created confidence; in another, an untouched coin brought a better price.
The coin returns home—and becomes a scandal
The Trade Dollar’s greatest humiliation occurred not in China, but in America.
When the world price of silver declined, its bullion became worth less than one dollar. Speculators could obtain Trade Dollars cheaply and release them into American commerce at their full face value.
Employers bought the discounted coins and placed them in workers’ pay packets. A labourer might receive five Trade Dollars marked ONE DOLLAR, only to discover that banks and shopkeepers accepted them for perhaps 80 or 90 cents each.
Congress revoked their legal-tender status on 22 July 1876. Yet production for export continued, and millions still circulated domestically. The government had created a coin bearing all the symbols of national authority, then told the people receiving it as wages that it was no longer money.
Business-strike production finally ended in 1878. In 1887, Congress allowed a six-month redemption period—but excluded coins mutilated by chop marks. The very marks proving that a coin had fulfilled its intended Asian mission could prevent its redemption in the country that created it.

Plus some pics from my last time in Venice. At the time this coin was struck, Venice punched well above its weight and was a major power in European and Mediterranean politics. They had colonies throughout the Mediterranean, including in the Balkans, the Peloponnese, Crete, and Cyprus. Venice was regularly at war with the Ottomans as the Muslims expanded into the eastern Mediterranean, and also their Italian neighbours. Perhaps their fiercest rivalry was with Genoa, the other Italian City-State that was also a republic and major naval power.

Really impressive just picked this up for 100$

With a mintage of 150,000 you dont see this everyday a nice addition i bought in japan in july for 195$

Ottoman Empire, Mehmed V, 20 Kurush, Constantinople Mint, Frozen AH1327 (Regnal Year 8 = 1916 AD). This date has the lowest mintage of the type, sitting at 713,000 but it is the most common relative to other years.

Going like wildfire not knowing this is a replica

Finally bought one!

Bought this for a really fair price in Turkey thats where im from lol