Posted 4 years ago
Stephanieb…
(1 item)
Hello all! First time posting here. I recently found this coin in a box purchased from an estate sale. I think it is of Spanish origin after reading some posts I found of similar looking coins. Any help would be appreciated.
I think your best bet is to reach out to one of the many sites that specialize in these type of coins. These type of shipwreck coins have been faked for decades.
Hi, Stephaniebreann. Cool-looking item, whatever it is.
I'm definitely not a coin expert, but I do see what you mean about the similarity to some antique Spanish coins, e.g.:
*snip*
The rich deposits of precious metal in the New World were too much for Spanish royalty to resist. They were therefore exploited and carried back to Spain. To hasten this process, bars of silver and gold were hacked into chunks of proper weight and struck with heavy hammers between crude, hard-metal dies. The strike imparted a Spanish pattern, or part of a Spanish pattern, into the coin. The Spanish word cabo (English cob) refers to the end of the bar. The size, shape and impression of these cobs was highly irregular. However, they were of proper weight, and that is what mattered to Spanish officials. If a cob was overweight, the minter simply clipped a piece off.
*snip*
https://coinquest.com/cq_data/cq_ro/page_image/spanish_colonials/silver_cob.jpg
https://coinquest.com/cgi-bin/cq/coins.pl?action=spanish-colonials
Your piece has a piercing, which doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't a coin, but merely that at some point somebody attached it to something else, a la the old Roma custom wearing of coins as jewelry.
However, be advised that dav2no1 could be right about it being a reproduction, and reaching out to a specialist coin forum for more help.