Help needed regarding Silver Coin from 1892

5 Shillings Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek 1892

Recently a friend of mine at work brought me this coin and asked me to sell it for him. He got this coin, left to him by his late father in Malawi.

This might seem like an easy thing to do. Take pictures, make a price and post it on eBay, Facebook marketplace or Gumtree.

Yet as I looked at the information available at the three sources below, I realized that I do not know enough.
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3

There are single and double "shaft" coins. What does this mean?
How do I know which is which? I can't seem to be able to google that answer.

The next question would be, do I try polishing the co myself? Now I know you don't just rub it until it is clean. I do have access to some fine-grit lapidary pastes ranging from 3000 grit diamond paste to 100,000 grit diamond paste and cerium oxide which would be for putting a final polish on stone and gemstones.

The final question would be where to sell this coin? Looking at the prices, I do not have the money to buy it and keep it, which is my go-to response with these things. However, my friend has decided that he needs the money and will pay me a generous percentage of the money made in doing so.

So over to the Hive Community. Lend me your expertise!

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For the first question, shaft and double shaft is referring to the part of the wagon used to harness the horses to the wagon. The actual wagon terminology is Singletree and doubletree hitch. In coin terms, the terms refer to two varieties of the coin. The Coat of arms on the Reverse of the coin features a wagon located below the anchor. If that part of the wagon hitch looks like a "T" it is a single shaft, If it looks like an "H" it's a double shaft.

And I wouldn't try to polish or clean the coin as it reduces the value of the coin.

Regards KLR

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Wow. I would not have thought to look at the wagon!

Alright. Well I can only see one shaft and it looks like neither a T nor an H. I will assume however that it is a single shaft.

Why do they do this? That detail on the wagon is really tiny. They would likely needed a whole different mold for that one.

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I usually have a Magnifying glass to check details of coins.
Yes, such differences may be very small but count as a Die Variety. Mints often change out the worn dies for newer ones for a given production run. As a production set of dies is nearing it's useful life a new set is copied and reduced from the original large plaster cast of the model coin. During the production it wouldn't be uncommon for the coin engraver makes minor changes to the original model coin for what ever reason he deems fit.

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Indeed. That is very interesting.

Well. I now know that it is probably a single shaft coin and that I should not clean it.

Now I need to sell it somewhere.

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The next question would be, do I try polishing the co myself?

Please do not clean or polish the coin, it will destroy the aging of the coin, no matter how well it's done. If the coin is professionally appraised it will be labeled as "cleaned" and will make it more difficult to sell. The condition of the coin is determined by wear, not shinyness.

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