While most casual collectors were in awe of this coin, savy collectors spotted some further information in the pics supplied by Armour George. The presence of a gold streak in the coin meant there absolutely was a gold equivalent ...we just hadn't seen it yet.
Well that ended last week when "Luke" contacted me about what he thought was a correct gold Mantle. It seems his father picked it up at a flea market in NC back in he 1990's and his son searched the internet to identify it and came across my armour coin blogs. He was especially interested in blog #19 "Hi Ho Silver" where I called out a fake silver Gilliam that had been obviously spray painted.
Luke asked whether I would check out the current Mantle coin for him. How could any Armour collector turn down a chance to hold a correct Mantle gold in his hands.
The coin arrived a few days later and I put it through my series of non destructive tests. It passed with flying colors. It is shown below. As you can see from the bottom row of pics it reveals the required transparency
The next step was to acquire it. I made Luke a very fair offer. Last thing I wanted was for it to come to EBay and set up a bidding war with the half dozen of you who would want to bid against me for it. Mission accomplished. So the gold Mantle correct (L or R) is now in the collection of ArmourPhil and since gold trumps silver it becomes the new "cappo de tutti cappo"
It will eventually be graded and put into the 1955 armour set "Priceless" but not until PSA pricing comes down. Armour Phil don't grade coins for $150 !
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