1772 Half Reales/Cufflink And 1802 Real

On this snow day you published more fantastic finds! The 1772 "medio" in Spanish, or "Picayune" in the language spoken down New Orleans way, is the first year of issue for Charles III portrait coinage, and yours has the inverted mintmark and assayers initials. The solder on the obverse would have added a loop to make this a cuff button, or with one or several chain links attached to another such coin, would have served as a cuff link. Looking at wear on the host coin, center, obverse you see this coin was worn before being turned into a button. I make it out to be an early to mid-19th century artifact that used an 18th century coin. Using real silver on one's breeches is a mark of upper crustiness. The pillar side would have shown outward. These became a clothing fad so much so that we dig imitation Spanish coin buttons made to look like the pillar side of both pillar obverse and portrait reverse Spanish colonial coins. I have a matched set of dug, portrait-style Spanish coin buttons with this same design, but made of a brass/copper alloy. In fact I have a near match to your coin, a one real, dug in Winchester, VA with broken shank, which probably is why they both hit the dirt, not to be discovered back in the day. I don't know of any similar non-dug coins turned buttons with intact shanks. I suspect this was a farmer's "make do" practice to wear-it-out, fix-it-up but never throw-it-out.

The next coin is high grade and has a pleasing "unearthed" tone. In 1802 two assayers in Mexico City "FT" and "FM" authenticated coins. In the case of the 1802 one real, they are about equal in value and scarcity, but some denomination/assayer combinations in 1802/03 can be much scarcer at double the price of common combos. This coin most likely was lost during the War of 1812.

Thanks for sharing the images.

Ahab8, amazing finds.
Pistareen, thank you for a great history lesson.