Posted 9 years ago
Germanicus
(1 item)
Hello to all. First time post.
Found this coin while metal detecting. I'm not sure if this is a Spanish doubloon or not. As far as I know they were made of gold or silver, but this one has another metal under that is not silver and the gold on the surface of the coin is less than 10Kt. Any ideas will be great!
Sounds like a repro.. I wouldn't doubt if there were more fakes than real doubloons now days. Sorry.
Does a magnet stick to it?
blunderbuss2: thanks for the info, the fact that there is a different unknown metal under the gold plating is a big red flag.
Efesgirl: the piece is not attracted to magnets.
The coin was found at a local beach, and the first thing that came to mind was that maybe it got there in sand brought in by the city from dredging or a joke.
Anybody else?
Plating wasn't known then & even so, it would have worn off in short order on a sand beach.
Definitely not Spanish, cannot identify (Spanish myself) anything familiar sorry
blunderbuss2: Thanks for the info!
aissia: interesting, i though that it looked like a 8 reales or doubloon. Thanks for the info!
Well I cannot read anything Spanish but maybe cause it is really faded. Maybe now looking at it more carefully, although the kind of "flower" around the shield on the first photo was not familiar to me I found other coins similar like this one:
http://www.subastasgema.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/enrique.jpg
and looking better the shield it clearly indicates 2 castles and 2 lions which correspond to the shield of "Castilla" which is the crown of Isabel, and the center of Spanish life (including ancient capital, Valladolid). I cannot identify Spanish language on the writing but the type of letter is very similar to other Spanish coins, and it seems they were using latin so! there my confusion. The other photo corresponds most likely to the shield of Spain (reunited after Isabel and Fernando marriage), you can see a similar one here:http://www.antena3.com/clipping/2009/10/22/00074/30.jpg
I haven't found one with both front and tail similar, but I think you might be in the right direction. Sorry I misjudged your coin, it was very late in Spain, I was tired and I didn't have the eye to see what it was there :)
Aissia: the closest image i was able to find that are similar to this coin is at:
http://st.coinshome.net/coin-image-8_Real-Silver-Bolivia-4WwKb0OMJUYAAAFD2YrA4OBm.jpg
I really appreciate the description about the two sides of the coin and the links. At least now i have a general idea of what the shields mean!
It seems, sadly, that this is a replica of a Spanish coin. Thanks all that posted!
I found one that appears to have the same markings on each side
Candidlava, mine was a replica, have seen a few like it in the years since I posted this at some gift shops. I kept it regardless.
Germanicus, There's no reason why you shouldn't keep it, if you like it. You know what it is now, and replicas are also a part of history.
keramikos, you are completely correct, this is the reason why I still have it.
Hi my names Alivia, about 10 years ago I found this exact same coin but in silver… the patters are the same and everything
Alivia, that’s cool! I suppose that was the type of coin people were using to give us heart attacks while metal detecting back then.
Germanicus, There ARE people who get their kicks that way, aren't there?
keramikos, indeed there are. Regardless, they do make life a bit more interesting sometimes.
i had one exactly like this as a kid. i pretended it was real and brought it to show and tell even though i knew it was fake. confession time...