ID Spanish Gold Coin

warman Hello and welcome to the Forum.

The first picture is the obverse and it is laying on its side with the bottom of the coin appearing at the right. There are facing busts of the King and Queen. It appears to be the obverse of the Doble Excelente or Gold Doble Ducado. The figure between the busts is the mint mark S for Segovia surrounded by four stops (periods). It looks like the Cayon # 2773 or 2783. The type was typically undated but was issued from 1497 onward during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Monarchs (Reyes Catolicos). You need to supply the approximate diameter and weight to be sure which - but the design ties to that general type from Segovia. There were numerous varieties issued and the coin is still fairly common.

The reverse shows the shield of the combined monarchy surmounted by an eagle with its wings open. They wings run down both sides of the shield and I believe that is a symbol of the Church or God covering and protecting the Monarchy (a literal reading of the Psalms).

But as an authenticator - I notice a few simple facts. The coin appears to have been mounted - there is a trace of the mounting crossing the first picture top to bottom. The mount was likely a pin soldered across the face of the coin - crossing the crowns of the King and Queen. Many original coins were in fact turned into jewelry so that in and of itself is not a problem to authenticity.

But the coin is a casting. Originals were struck. The fields are bumpy and the high points have been artificially ground flat to create the contrast. This is typical of modern brass castings. I see no exposed plating layer so the coin may be a solid alloy (possibly gold) but the composition is unknown.

The coin should be round - so the irregularity at the edges points to clipping or conversely a lack of understanding of the type on the part of the maker. Perhaps the clipping was added for authenticity.

The molds are a good but not highly skilled copy of an original coin. It was not made by any transfer methodology that I can detect. I suspect a hand engraved mold possibly using a picture as a guide.

The shape of the coin and overall appearance make me think you are dealing with a Jewelry Fantasy of sorts. A coin made especially for jewelry and not originally to pass as money. In that case, there should be a clear seam around the edge of the coin. Jewelry pieces typically were only smoothed along the edge so the seam should not be fully concealed.

The gold content can be checked so there may be value there, but as a "coin" it falls into the Replica class and as such is of minimal value over intrinsic content.