I recently made a trade that I thought you’d find interesting!
Years ago, when I just started collecting coins and didn’t have much of a clue (“buy the book before the coin,” as they say), I picked up an 1835 “Classic Head” half cent. After several attempts, I finally found it a new home—woohoo!
Do you ever hold onto coins that remind you of past mistakes? They drive me crazy, so I was glad to let go of this one, even though I ended up losing about $90 in the process.
In return, I acquired a fascinating 18th-century Indian “Fanam” coin, made of gold, no less, which I had never seen before. Plus, I got some extra cash to boost my “coin fund.”
Here are some pictures and details about both coins:
Check out the obverse (front)—isn’t it beautiful and detailed? That’s what drew me to it three years ago. I even overlooked the obvious cleaning on the reverse, oops. The picture doesn’t quite do it justice, but it shines brightly, which affects its value significantly. But hey, we live and learn!
Despite this, it’s still a lovely piece of 1800s American coinage. Someday, I hope to replace it with a better, uncleaned version for my collection. Our coins used to be so stunning, didn’t they? And how cool is it that we once had half-cents?
(Here’s a link to all the posts we’ve done on “odd” denominations if you want to see more interesting ones: [https://cointhrill.com/category/odderror/](https://cointhrill.com/category/odderror/))
(Excuse the marks on the packaging—I’ve since moved the coin to a clear, air-tight holder, which is my preferred storage method.)
As for the Fanam coin, I didn’t know much about it at first, but as soon as I saw it in my friend’s collection, I knew I wanted one!
Most of his were flatter and rounder, but this one stood out with its detailed, concave design, which I found quite unique. I did some research and found this bit in the American Journal of Numismatics, Volume 50:
“Fanum. A word probably corrupted from Panam by Europeans. A name given to both gold and silver coins which are common in the southern part of India. The gold Fanum is a minute coin circulating in Travancore and on the Malabar Coast.”
Interesting, right? And this coin is indeed tiny—as you can see in the pictures, even smaller than the 1 1/2 pence coin from Great Britain we blogged about last year!
Here’s a close-up of the sides to see the symbols:
And if the pictures look a bit “digital,” it’s because I photographed the screen showing the image to trick Photoshop into letting me edit it. They’re getting good at recognizing money in images to stop potential forgers, but I outsmarted them this time! There’s always a workaround, right?
Hope you enjoyed the read!
Has anyone else made interesting trades lately? Or want to share some rookie buying mistakes from your early collecting days?
