1713 Circa Gold Spanish Colonial Coin Help

Very interesting. Lets wait and see if the CCF members can help.
I have no clue.

So it's kind of a joke how many times "grandma has a box and it contained a rare old gold coin and I Googled it and it's a Spanish gold doubloon piece of eight"...

The fact you had a typical "eh" grade Concepcion wreck piece along with it doesn't really mean much for this piece - those were heavily sold via direct marketing so it could have been a one-off purchase by bored Grandpa sipping his brandy, seeing that advertised in the coupon packet of the Sunday paper. Either way, the "gold" as described above is almost invariably tourist-type replica material... usually cheap cast repros of Mexican 1715 Fleet finds... and people like me get a slight giggle out of it.

Such pieces, as I've noted before, often get intentionally "planted" on beaches with the sole purpose of messing with w/the metal detectorists who end up finding them and getting all aroused by it b/c they don't know better...

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That said........ A closer look (FOR ONCE!!) may be warranted here. IF the holder is a regular 2" x 2" flip, that's supposed to be a 4 Escudos. The coin is actually correctly part-attributed on the 2x2 - noting the variant "XMo" mintmark exclusive to 1711-13 Mexican gold cobs.

Aside from that, the pics aren't nearly good enough to see anything conclusive about the surfaces. The black stuff we see I would typically assume to be thin "gold" (brass) plating wearing off - BUT could be sea scuzz that was never fully cleaned off. NOTE that if there's anything that is unmistakably PITTING in that area, clearly eaten into the "coin" - it ISN'T gold!!

I will say this for it... the cross reverse is very sloppy - badly doubled and weakly struck in general. It is not the typical piece you would use as a base coin to make a mold from... but that's no hard-and-fast rule.

First things first, get the piece weighed (to the 0.1 gram) out of the holder and report that here... Depending on that, in lieu of high-quality pics, have an actual COIN shop with some world coin capability (ask if they're familiar with Spanish Colonial/cob coins) take a peek at it... or at least get it gold-tested by an up-and-up jeweler (non-acid if possible... ask for XRF and/or a specific gravity test).

Don't get your (or Granny's) hopes up too much yet... but it's at least not an automatic no-doubt repro from the pics.



PS - "plenty of gold and silver coins, some dating back to the mid 1600s, mostly from Mexico and Spain".

If you're inclined, show a quick group pic so as to get an idea of what we're dealing with here...

Hi,

I know this was a while ago. But I took it to the local coin shop. The guy weighed it and everything. It's an authentic 1713 1 Escudo, worth a minimum of $600. At least, that's what he said he would buy it for. He's a dealer, so he always buys for way less than book value.

Thanks though!

So what IS the weight of the piece?

And, you never answered... can you confirm that the holder you showed the coin in was indeed a 2-inch by 2-inch holder?

If it WAS 2" x 2" (and it looks like it from the dimension, etc. of what's in the photo)... again, there is very little chance that the piece is a "1 Escudo" denomination. The coin is simply too large in diameter to be a 1E... it would have to be 2E or even possibly a compact 4E.

So do you still have it? Would love to see better pics...

These are my photos of the coin. As I said, I'll get back to you later on your other questions.

OK, interesting... I'm going to hold off until I see the weight to say anything else. You really need the weight to the 0.1g; a basic kitchen-type scale may only do to the whole gram. That would tell us something, but not enough.

Also, of course, it would be best to weigh it out of the holder... otherwise we're semi-guessing how much that specific "coin flip" happens to weigh (speaking of that, do measure the holder to verify that it's 2" x 2").

ADVICE: Those staples were clinched close in to the coin slot - BE CAREFUL REMOVING IT SO YOU DON'T SCRATCH IT!! Just use your thumbnail to pry a staple loose (guiding it AWAY from the center) and then pull out carefully (that's what she said?). A staple remover would come too close to the coin, and one spazz move using a remover's teeth and you'd ruin the piece.

As far as pics... obviously this was better. Best would be like these BUT larger res. and sharper (macro lens or similar). Will see what the new set looks like. Keep in mind, not just trying to see what the piece generally looks like... you need crisp, clear photos of the surface to see what needs to be seen.

Also, I guess you shot them already, but... direct shots out of the holder (rather than under its plastic) would be best. There's something I'm looking at on the reverse side that I'd like to see more clearly, but the plastic is (possibly?) distorting the view a bit.

Well, my memory is crap I think. The guy at the coin shop must have said 2 Escudos, not 1. It was in a 1.5 x 1.5 inch holder, with the coin being less than an inch in diameter (though I only precisely measured the holder before I read your comment about measuring the diameter of the coin). Also, the coin is 6.9 grams, which is a bit more than the average 2 Escudos coin. The coin shop employee realized this as well, and he thought it might be a fake. However, after doing several tests, he told me it was authentic.

I remember him using some kind of scale to measure the gold in the coin.

If the LCS believes it to be genuine and offered you $300 or even $600 as you mention above, they are trying to steal it from you.
Please do yourself a favor and run any potential sales by a 2nd opinion before pulling the trigger.