Going through a 15 pound bulk lot that was described as amazing old collection and which I almost passed on because the photos looked very similar to my current collection, I made many good date finds, including Italy KM# 90 1947 indicated as only 12,000 minted. I think it is in very good shape, showing good detail for a circulated aluminium coin. There is some patina (dirt). How would you grade it? Thanks!
The weight (3.02 g) and diameter (29 mm) are right, so I think this is the real coin.
Although I am new to this forum, I have some experience with Italian republic coins, and the reverse spacing of the lettering does not convince me. I will keep looking but am unsure.
I collect anything: If it's Italian or Italian states i collect it even more!
Finally, in the 1947 coin, contrarily to the 1946 coin, the horse's second thigh is barely, but still, visible as a small second line underneath, this detail is lacking from your coin. However i wish for you that somebody out there may be able to contradict me, as that would be a very nice find!
I collect anything: If it's Italian or Italian states i collect it even more!
Thanks for the comments guys. loruca, I was going to agree with you that the spacing in the tiny lettering underneath ITALIANA looked suspicious, as all the photos I saw of other years had "NOLI" ending above the N of "INC" and mine has "NOLI" ending above the "C" and I have a dash between "PAOLI" and "INC" that I did not see on other photos. Then I found an eBay listing for a cleaned 1947 for $1,199.95 (withdrawn from auction as no longer available).
The lettering appears as on mine. Also the ear is the same as on mine (my scanner shows the ear appearing to reach the rim due to shine but in actuality it does not). And the second thigh line is barely visible on my coin though the scanner did not pick it up due to shine. So I now think it is genuine. Thanks for the details.
i'm sorry to have to reopen this conversation, but i took the liberty of posting your pics on a specialized italian forum, they agreed with my first doubts, here is a link , someone took the time to point out all the little details, and they concluded it was probably a fake.
loruca
Right now I think I will just hope it is genuine and of course I will get it evaluated at some point in the future. I have no immediate plans for it and plenty else to keep me busy. So I will just enjoy the feeling of possibly having discovered a rarity. The same type of thing happened to me when I collected stamps of Southeast Asia years ago. I had a big lot of stamps from Malaya and found one that if genuine would have been worth thousands of dollars (it was obviously false, the overprint of a B for use in Bangkok in a British post office was much too large). Still for a little while, it was a thrill.
Luckily I enjoy the discovery of any new coin and even fakes are interesting as long as I did not buy them specifically as being genuine. My biggest fake discovery previously was Empire of China - Taiwan Krause X# 373 (silver dollar) but it had rust spots so I knew it was fake right away.
