Hello Chaps!

Like all good anarcho-capitalists I've been busily stacking silver coins since the world was knocked sideways in 2008/9.

As well as the usual investment-grade Britannias and Maple Leafs ( which are nice but not very exciting ) I always like to pick up the odd bullion coin when they are cheap enough.

I've got quite a horde of these now, and some of them are quite unusual, so I thought I put together a series of posts to show them all and to give you what I know about them - which is often not a lot.

I would love it if some of you coin-buffs would be able to fill in any missing details from the descriptions that I give. Or if anyone could provide me with a little more background data then that too would be much appreciated.

Here we go with the first one:

This came in from a local house clearance. It was in a small, tin box surrounded by a small collection of not-very-exciting copper coins.

It is an 1848 1/6 Thaler silver coin from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

The silver content is .520, which is a bit low for a Thaler but I suppose they had their reasons; 1848 was a bad year for many European Monarchies.

The rim is stamped with an arabesque pattern.

It measures 23mm in diameter.

It is nicely toned and it hasn't seen a lot of use, although the rim is a bit worn in places. There is however evidence that it has been brooched at some point on the obverse.

This is classed as a common coin and, as far as I can gather, there were 136,524 of these minted that year. That figure looks quite low for a common coin, but what do I know?

Please enjoy this coin and its associated data! More to follow. See you again soon.

Simon.