Hello,

I bought this Florin these days and it arrived today. Now, I have little experience with silver coins, as I have bought mainly the coppers and CuNis for my collections till now. This time, and it is a first for me, the coin is actually lighter than it should be. A Florin of this type should weigh 11,3104 g. Mine brings only 11,27g to the scale. Now my question is: Is this within "healthy" limits?

In order to visualize my problem... this is the coin:



This is a scan, therefore I apologize for the quality.

I hope someone can help me out...

How confident are you that your scale is accurate and have you checked it against something of a known weight that is not variable?

Well, I did check it against two 20 euro cent coins and the weight that should be 5,73 was 5,75g for one of them and 5,73 for the other. The scale is new (it also arrived today) and hopefully calibrated.


Hmmm... just checked it on a 10 euro cent which should be 4 g and it showed 4,16... Another 10 cent piece came out with 4,10. Both were from Germany. Krause gives a weight of 4.000g. Oh man... Don't you just love these days. A coin that might be a copy, a scale that might be broken, my roof let water in tonight and somebody bumped my car this afternoon. A-effing-mazing.

EDIT: According to the Bundesbank, a 10 euro cent weighs 4,10g. So Krause has it wrong there. So, it seems that the scale is fine.

Some scales can be calibrated but usually must be done at the low, high, and mid points. It might be better to return the scale and start over.

I will try to calibrate the scale tomorrow at my local chemist. My old scale and calibrating weights got lost during moving house, which wasn't tragic as it had been misused for other stuff back then. I hope my local chemist has such weights. I am not sure I can return it on just a hunch as it was bought online.

Assuming the scale is right... could/would a difference of 0,0404 g be within "healthy" limits?

dont think its the coin ts not that worn down it has to be the scale..

dustin

Right. I calibrated the scale this morning and the thing is accurate. I tried several other coins since then and it is fine. My Florin still weighs 11,27 g. On a German forum someone said that the weight loss is within the limits, as the obverse shows some signs of use. Now that the scale question has been taken care of, would the experts here agree with this opinion?

Thank you again, by the way, for the willingness to help. It makes a rookie like me feel very comfortable.

Reminds me, somewhere I have an old balance beam scale with weights made of brass, from the 1930's. I need to dig it out and try it on coins.

Apologies for the blank entry above.

The Coinage Act 1870 gave a legal weight of 11.31036g with a remedy [i.e. tolerance] of 0.0646g Although the Coinage Act 1920 changed the fineness of the silver alloy I do not believe it change the weight and remedy. So the approx. 0.04g difference from the nominal quoted could be found on a legally issued unc florin.

Regards,

Robert

Robert,

that is an amazingly helpful information. Thank you very much. I am surprised by the legal weight. 5 decimal places is impressive. At least now I know that I am within limits.

May I ask where you have that information from?

Can't help you with the weight problem, but here's wishing everything works out for you concerning your roof and car, etc.

Are there any of those plate-smashing clinics to relieve stress in the US?

Thank you, TreasureGirl. My car is fine, thank the gods. More importantly, so is the other car. I am expecting some guys tomorrow, who will take a look at my roof.

I am not in the US, but here in Germany there is none that I know off. Maybe I should visit the local junkyard.

eh just put some duck tape on it no need to spend more money!!!

I made a note of the figures from the Act when I used to work at the

Any more figures you could share with us?

By the way, was the weight described in grams in the act or are the 5 decimal places the result of a conversion?

The Act quotes weight figures in both grains and grammes. It is my belief that the grammes figures were calculated from the more traditional grains figures and hence the five figures of decimals. I am reasonably sure they could not routinely weigh to that accuracy at the Royal Mint at that time.

regards,

Robert

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you very much for your reply.