Found A Coin In The Bahamas (Id: Modern Replica Cob For Pirate-Themed Parties)

First off, welcome.

I'm surprised you don't have a slew of answers already. I'm far from an expert on these, but it looks to be a Spanish "cob" type silver coin, from the 17th to early 18th century being my semi-educated guess. A ruler in the photo along with a weight would greatly assist in determining the denomination. A little better focus in the second photo would be helpful also. Most likely struck somewhere in the new world, I'd think, but somebody here will likely be able to provide a more definitive identification.

Appreciate the responses so far. I'll try to get some better pictures up later today. Glad to be here.

I noticed the cross was rather like those typically found on escudos, so I may well have been off-base. Plus, thinking bout it a little, if it were the real deal, I'd expect it wouldn't be so clean after salt water immersion of any duration.

Sorry, I hate to break it to you but there really is no room for any doubt - your friend's coin is as fake as the ones from the replica store I linked to above, because it's exactly the same design as them. Exactly. Genuine cob coins were all hand-struck from crudely shaped blanks. There are no two cob coins exactly the same size, shape and design; they are as unique as fingerprints. Yet, let's put your coin and a coin from the pile-o-fakes side-by-side to compare them.



These are what is known in numismatics as a "die match" - they were made in the same factory, or at least one was exactly copied off of the other. Note that they are exactly the same shape. Also note the repeated odd patterns that you usually do not find on genuine coins, such as the curious upside-down-L-shape hanging over the castle in the bottom left quadrant of the cross and the strange lumps and bumps on the cross itself. All exactly matching.

Well that's terrible news but you have me convinced. Appreciate you taking the time to investigate for us. Great forum you guys have here. Thanks again!

to the Community, cheeseball!

Hi cheeseball. I think it's trying to look like an escudo. Escudo means shield in both Spanish and Portuguese, which can make it tricky to search for info; it's easy to find lots of pictures of shields. Try searching on "escudo coin" instead. Welcome to the forum!

Rotate the 2nd photo 90 degrees clockwise and compare. It can be seen it is the same item.

It could only have got into a bathtub drain at about the time the drain was built or sometime afterwards. Does your drain date from before the mid 1700's !? Was that a genuine query?