Can Anyone Confirm Or Deny This Is A Real Spanish 10 Escudos?

Maybe it's a contemporary counterfeit.

The color and mushy form of the design and lettering on reverse identify this as a contemporary counterfeit. It is brass and, many years ago, had a coating of gold to support the illusion of a 10 escudos coin just long enough to pass it at face value.

The mangled obverse is undoubtedly post production damage.

Always nice to see an Isabel II on the forum.

Thanks for posting it!

As historically interesting as they are, they are not uncommon. I picked up a couple of them in my travels to aid my study of the era of Isabel II. The current market is in the range of $1 to $5 in F to EF.

There are also more valuable contemporary counterfeits of her reign, such as some of the platinum counterfeits. Those generally have much better engraving which more closely matches authentic pieces and were made of platinum with gold coating. Such pieces, if attractive, can bring as much or more than authentic pieces.

Conversely, less desirable pieces include the many modern forgeries and reproductions of these which have no value whatsoever.

Hope this helps.

I want to be clear about terminology. I take "contempory counterfeit" to mean a coin that was meant to be passed off as legit back when this was legal currency; then there are numismatic forgeries, which I can understand are regarded as junk.

I am amazed that there are so many of the former type out there in great condition. It seems counter-intuitive. Thanks for responding.

realeswatcher, thank you for pointing this out.

Whether some of these are contemporary counterfeits later worn as jewelry or jetons later plated and passed as money is admittedly undecided. I agree that some may have been jetons or tokens that never served as contemporary counterfeits. As noted in one of my previous posts on the subject, definitive evidence of their full history would be most welcomed. Like Coronado before me, my exposure to them has been in the realm of counterfeits.