1788 Spanish Gold Escudo Help?

Twangator - The coin looks real based on the design. The letters are correct and the coin certainly appears "struck". But I have a couple of concerns about the coin. First it is heavy - the coin has a standard weight of 1.69 grams so 1.8 g is quite high. If the weight is accurate - it could be a problem.

It would appear that the coin may have been mounted at the top center (see depression above King's head). It is not a rare coin so the use of a real coin as jewelry would not be out of the question.

I am also bothered by the porous appearance of the fields of the coin (on the reverse) which could indicate a cast copy. It could be simple damage from being worn as jewelry as well. It needs to be checked.

There are a few anomalies in the design - bump on the King's chin, the bump on the period before the date and the rough edges along the links - all could be due to casting OR damage as jewelry.

The edge design is correct but I am bothered by the apparent "lump" in one of the diagonal groves - above the period between the are and 8 (in the date).

As I said, the coin is a common date so a cast forgery in high grade gold is unlikely as a "Numismatic Forgery". The half and One escudo denominations were popular in jewelry in the 1960s and gold was inexpensive - so anything could be possible. But in addition to gold versions there are also plated base metal copies around.

You should do a specific gravity to be sure you have real gold and then perform a microscopic examination of the coin itself to look for evidence of casting.

When I was in High School, I recall one of the girls in my class loved coin jewelry and her father indulged her (he was a dentist). She had several necklaces and a bracelet - all small Spanish Colonial gold coins. She was not the only person I knew who liked these.

Perhaps it was the New England focus on history, but in the period running up to the bicentennial of 1976 (say from the later 1960s onward) there was an increase in interest in ALL colonial things - small Spanish gold was of particular interest for jewelry and many jewelers had them on display. That is when I first noticed the gold casts and off metal forgeries being used. I suspected that the supply of cheap originals dried up and so the jewelers made copies. Many were cheap one sided casts but others were far better.

When looking at small gold coins (the size of $2.50 and lower) I always check VERY CLOSELY for mounting traces. The various changes in gold value meant that at many points the coins had a higher intrinsic value than face value - so these older issues didn't survive as money per see. They survived only as intrinsic bullion or jewelery. That is a simple economic fact.

Twangator- $65?! You, sir, got a deal. That is just awesome. Well, a lot of dealers just don't care about foreign coins since a lot of people out there do not collect them (which in my opinion is a bit closed-minded). Since they are junk in their eyes, they sell them for quite cheap. So great deals can be had by people like us!