Help Me Identify This Coin | English Sixpence Beach Find

G'day & welcome,
I don't recognizr the coin, and I'm having a lot of trouble reading the legend.
I can make out a date (?) of 1584.
The upper left quarter of the shield has three items that remind me of the Fleur-de-Lys, which was used as a badge by the royalty of France well into the 1800s.
However, the lower left quarter is more difficult to make out: It might be three lions, a symbol of England.
The English & British monarchs claimed sovereignty over France upto circa 1801.
So, I'm thinking you might have found an old English coin, perhaps from the reign of Queen Elizabeth, now called "the first".
Peter

Thanks for your reply. Perhaps I can describe it in a bit more detail than the photograph shows. It was difficult to get a good photograph as the coin is very worn. In the upper left hand quadrant of the shield are three Fleur-de-Lys. The same Fleur-de-Lys pattern is repeated in the lower right hand quadrant as well. There does appear to be three lions in the lower left quadrant. The upper right quadrant is too worn to make out, but it could be a repeat of the lions. The date is, indeed, 1584. On the reverse side of the coin there appears to be a crowned figure, with what might be a rose or other flower to the right side of the figure. The image, however, doesn't look very feminine, but perhaps Elizabeth I didn't either! The legend is difficult to read. Some of the letters are, I think, APOSV. Does this help? If it is, indeed, an English sixpence, does it have any value? Thanks for your help!

If you ask me, that's a pretty amazing find to wash up recently on a beach! What do you suppose the source was--are there shoals/banks just offshore? That could be something to investigate with diving friends--because there might be more.

It was found at Cape Hatteras, NC, so I imagine that there are ship wrecks out there that still have not been explored. Hatteras is near the Outer Banks of NC whose waters are called "the graveyard of the Atlantic." It probably came from a ship, wouldn't you think?

Many possibilities on how the coin ended up on a beach in NC. There are numerous shipwrecks off the coast of NC. Hurricanes visit the NC coast usually every year.

I miss living there, but I dont miss the heat and humidity

G'day Kurt, I agree.
My point is, I accept that the coin was most likely dropped on the beach, and hidden by the sand, until the wind moved the sand.
What I have difficulty with is the theory that the coin was on a ship; the ship sank - even near the shore; and that this dense metal disc migrated across the seabed and up the beach, without becoming abraded, nor covered in marine encrustations.

In my extensive experience, as a boy who grew up spending all summer on the beach, coins dropped on dry sand disappear almost immediately.

I might be assuming that the beach in question here looks like the ones I'm familar with. I've been to beaches in California and Florida - and they were very nice, with plenty of sand.
I've been to what the Poms call a beach: Aussies would call it a quarry.
No matter what the best theory might be, a 1584 coin is an interesting piece in any collection ... AND its provenance is far more interesting than any acquisition in a shop, auction, or internet site.
Peter

As to how the coin got on the NC outer banks at Cape Hatteras, there is another possibility besides a ship wreak. Sir Walter Raleigh, and his compatriots, were exploring the area and trying to establish a colony there in the 1580s, so perhaps it was dropped on the sand, got swallowed up, and resurfaced centuries later. If only the coin could talk and tell us its story .....

Peter, you may have the right idea about the coin already being on the beach. Here's a rather lengthy talk from a guy who actually metal detects on NC beaches and his thoughts on how the coins appear.

http://www.outerbanksnc.net/beachtips.html