Abridged Authenticity? 1803 Eight Reales

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Author	Replies: 3 / Views: 1,496
Pistareen Valued Member United States 309 Posts	Posted 01/23/2015 10:28 pm Here is one of an unusual hoard of coins with distinctive provenance. They come from a dump site in Maryland. The dump held dredge material trucked there from the Potomac River, disturbed by the rebuilding of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge that spans from Alexandria, Virginia to Prince Georges County, Maryland. As I understand the tale told to me second hand, a hurricane swept through during construction, temporarily halting work. The hurricane dumped about six inches of rain in a short time. Some drivers walked the dump site right after to see if the roads were passable and found a field of glass fragments, metal junk, and coins sparkling in the sun. Hundreds of coins were picked up from Buffalo nickels all the way back to colonials. This is one of a handful of Spanish Colonial pieces-of-eight found by some blue collar folks who sold their pocketsful to a coin dealer. The pieces-of-eight all had wear and oriental chop marks. This host coin may well be bogus, but if so, at least it is not of very recent vintage. Report this Post to the Staff

swamperbob Pillar of the Community United States 5362 Posts	Posted 01/28/2015 11:07 am The coin looks real to me. If the find included Buffalo nickels the coin might be a well travelled Class 2 coin but coins of this grade would show no premium either way in my opinion. They are certainly not worth testing at $40 each. Has any information come forth on the origin of the coins? Was the area a dump site and if so when was it active? What is the latest date coin found? How many were Spanish-American versus US etc.? These facts and statistics might be able to help with the age of the coin at the time of deposition. Report this Post to the Staff
Pistareen Valued Member United States 309 Posts	Posted 01/28/2015 8:50 pm As I recall there were something less than 500 coins turned in by three individuals for a numismatic appraisal. Most were of no numismatic value barely clinging to their face value due to corrosion. I think the newest may have been some clad dimes turned green. Now the oldest coin was a George II Hibernia halfpenny with enough of the harp and monarch's profile to tell what it was. The silver coins faired better. Pictured is another eight reales from 1795. I believe the eight reales dates were 1787, 1795, 1796, 1803 and 1807 and I think all were from Mexico and all had chop marks. The best coin, I never saw but heard about was an 1845 Seated Liberty dollar. Report this Post to the Staff
swamperbob Pillar of the Community United States 5362 Posts	Posted 01/28/2015 11:50 pm That sounds like one very odd aggregation of coins. The coins were obviously lost in small groups over a relatively long interval of time based on the composition of the group. I say groups because at least based on the two 8 Reales shown - those two coins seem to be likely from a single source. How they all got there is an interesting thing to speculate about. Perhaps the Geo II 1/2 pence was a toll paid to and dropped by a colonial ferry boat man. Perhaps the 8 R coins were in the purse of a merchant which fell in the water as he boarded a ship. The 1845 dollar may have belonged to a Civil War solder of either side who lost it while crossing on the old bridge. Report this Post to the Staff
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