jiminsandiego said:It's about the size of half dollar with brtitan nia and jacobus secundus on it. Trying to post a picture for the first time here.. so might not be an image
No what he has found is a fake coin...this is a Tin half PennyRazorback Recovery said:jiminsandiego said:It's about the size of half dollar with brtitan nia and jacobus secundus on it. Trying to post a picture for the first time here.. so might not be an image
It seems you found an English tin half penny, from the late 1600's:
(3/4 of the way down page 481, The Coin Collectors Manual: Coinage of England)
http://books.google.com/books?id=nw...&resnum=3&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
"Of copper money, very little appeared in the reign of James II. (1684-1688), the halfpennies and farthings being of tin, with a copper plug. The reverses are the same as those of his predecessor, but they are not quite so well executed; both half-pennies and farthings have "Famulus Nummorum" on the edge. The tin half-pennies have the legend "Jacobus Secondus".
Edit: Found this after my initial post. Yep. It's an excellent find!
More info on Brit half-pennies here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfpenny_(British_pre-decimal_coin)
The halfpennies of King James II (1685–1688) were made of tin with a small square plug of copper in the centre. The corrosion properties of tin mean that very few coins survive in a good state of preservation, not helped by the electrochemical reaction between copper and tin. The objects of using tin were to produce coins at a profit while at the same time producing a coin which would be difficult to counterfeit, and at the same time to assist the ailing tin-mining industry. The coins weighed between 10.5 and 11.6 grams, with a diameter of 28–30 millimetres. The obverse showed the right-facing effigy of the king with the inscription IACOBVS SECVNDVS – James the Second – while the reverse shows the same Britannia as before. Unusually, the date appears not on the reverse but on the edge of the coin, which has the inscription NVMMORVM FAMVLVS date – an ancillary coinage. The coins were produced in 1685, 1686, and 1687.
Having been minted for ONLY 3 years over 333 years ago, I'd say you have a VERY rare find in VERY good condition! I'd hit that area REALLY hard in case there are more.
