Leaderboard

1699 Hungarian Thaler featuring Leopold I as Holy Roman Emperor:

Not that long. Glueing the lid back together took about 10 minutes plus a day's drying time. Repairing the hinge, just a few minutes to drift the pin out slightly, fold the hinge back in place and drift the hinge pin back again. The longest part of the leather restore was actually mixing the acrylic paints to get as close to the original shade as possible. Then it was just a case of touching up the scuffs and using a finger to spread the paint evenly to blend it in. Touching up, took about 20 minutes. Once dry a couple of coats of hide food plus buffing out took about 5 minutes each. So, overall working time was no more than an hour, maybe a shade over, all spread out over a couple of days to allow for drying times. Not too onerous realy, and not much real skill needed either. Just a bit of patience and a little knowledge on how to treat leather - been watching Susie on 'The Repair Shop' to gather the knowledge needed.

Thalers often feature impressive designs and I particularly like the cityscape reverses. Even 14th and 15th centuries thalers are usually milled and minted to a much higher standard compared to the hammered English coinage of the same period.

I've just finished conserving my 1893 short proof set box, and I thought I would share the results. The first pic shows the box in its original state with dozens of scuffs, a broken wooden lid and damaged hinge. I've now re-glued the wood, repaired the hinge and used acrylic paint to touch up the scuffs, followed by a couple of treatments with with hide food. The results are in the second pic. I must say that I'm very pleased with the results. The box hasn't been restored to brand new, but it does look very much nicer than it did when I got it. Just need to visit the bank to put the coins in, and then its onto the next project of sourcing a 1887 set plus box!! Sorry about the slightly blurry image of the second pic.

You also have to consider punches used for medals

Here are some of my examples of thalers: 1565 thaler featuring Augustus as Elector of Saxony

1903 penny

... and a closer view of the date.