Looking To Identify This Coin With An Interesting Back Story

It's generally called a "cob", basically a crudely hammered weight of silver (often a dollar / 8 reales) for local use, or export. A lot of these were shipped to China, as the Chinese government was stockpiling silver from the 1600s-1700s, and preferred Spain's quality control with respect to fineness and weight. They were used all over Asia, so it's not hard to imagine that one might get put aside and then resurface a couple hundred years later.

One point of concern: if this is a genuine period piece, I would expect chop marks of some sort; hammered symbols from contemporary merchants to validate that it's pure and hasn't been clipped. It looks genuine to my untrained eye, but I would proceed with caution.

By the style of the cross this coin is from Mexico City. The cross arms seem short so that it would be smaller than a piece of eight, and most likely a four reales. The shield sided may give more clues as to age but it definitely comes from the 1600s. It looks genuine to me. If I had to hazard a guess I would say It was minted under King Philip IV at the latest. Chinese chops started circa 1780 so that this coin would have circulated and dropped from commerce sometime in the 130 years before chops became a common practice. Think Ming dynasty for when it first circulated in the South Seas under sail from Portuguese merchants. The hole was a safety alteration to tie it up with wire or a string for safe keeping. These are neat vessels of history.

To the Forum.

Real batu! Looks genuine... Mexico City 4R or 8R cob. By the shield design, DEFINITIVELY Philip V. More precisely, the style looks right around 1730... which is probably the most frequently occurring date/era Mexico cob that surfaces from Indonesia (1730, 1729).

No Sumenep or other counterstamp... though not all the pieces out of Indonesia have them.

Aside from that, on condition... no getting around it, an awful lot of flatness (from poor strike moreso than wear). That void in the planchet (not an uncommon phenomenon) is also probably more distracting here than interesting. So, not a really a huge value piece. Even if an 8R rather than a 4R, certainly not a 3-digit value... Still an interesting and not terrible find.