Old European? | Replica Spanish "Pirate Coin"

It's a "Reyes catolicos" silver dollar (or fraction thereof) of Ferdinand and Isabella, co-rulers of Spain during the time of Columbus.

It's also highly likely to be a replica of some kind; given their connection to American history, "tourist copies" of these coins are common. This one is very rough-looking to me, though not as rough as some of the brass replicas of this coin that we've seen here on the forum. I can't tell from those pics whether the roughness is caused by casting or by corrosion from seawater or ground burial.

See some old threads here (uncertain authenticity), here (bad fake), here (another bad fake) and here (ditto).

If you could get us clearer pics of the front, back and edge, and give us the size and weight, we could help determine the denomination and put your mind at east, one way or another.

It's just a little bigger than an american quarter.

Anyone?

tumbleweedtrumpet - Hello - the coin itself is clearly a One Reale undated issue of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Reyes Catolicos. Their reign was from 1460 to 1504. The type is rather common I have seen many originals. Cayon lists over 130 varieties struck at 8 different mints. This type uses an odd font (see letter E). This font is original but scarce. Seen on larger denominations it is almost never seen on a 1R. The vast majority of the 1R coins use a far more standard shaped E. This font does however mean that other distinctive letter shapes should be seen on the coin as well! The fact that they DO NOT appear is a serious problem for an original. I have not located a photo of a single coin using a mix of fonts.

The weight could be helpful as Sap suggested to categorize the issue. Most forgeries especially modern tourist copies are made with light weight base metals. The majority are cast. The edge usually has a clear seam or at least evidence of the removal of a seam.

But even without that information, there are a few clues that clearly identify what this is. Cayon's "Las Mondedas Espanoles" provides numerous very clear pictures of the general variety. I can not determine the mint (the area where the mint mark is located is not clear). However, the legends have been blundered - they are similar to several modern counterfeit varieties - not the originals. In addition the surfaces are not clearly or sharply defined as they should be. They resemble a sea salvaged coin (with pitted degraded surfaces) however, that is typical of the Modern Tourist Class copies made since the early 1950s.

The weight would likely confirm this conclusion and the edge photo would likely show traces of an edge seam.

If the weight is correct for the type a specific gravity test would disclose the alloy.

In my opinion, the chances of this particular coin being real is extremely low.

Just curious, where did the coin come from?

I will post pics of the edge later.

Here you go..

On the first picture, there is what seems to be glue and a thin layer of paper stuck to in the upper left quadrant. Perhaps these were stuck to a tourist info card?

Thank you all for helping.