Spanish Cut Cobb? Need Help IDing

[T Hunter]

We found this today in an area where we are finding 1700s american coins .Does this look Spanish , cut Cobb ? Thanks for your help . Mark

[capt dom]

Looks like a "piece of eight" arh
Actually it appears to be a cut Mexican 1/2, 1 or two reale'.
Sometimes that is how they made change out in the field.
I am basing this assumption on the ball on the end of the cross.
What does it weigh in grams?

[ivan salis]

a "bit" cut from a small sized spanish coin ( like 1/2 ,1 or 2 reale most likey -- with 8 reales being a "dollar" those small coins would be equal to 6 1/4 cents --12 1/2 cents and 25 cents in value -- a meal with a beer or two or a bit of wine or room at a boarding inn to sleep indoors for the night ran about 12 1/2 cents each back then )-- folks in those old days often made small change by cutting the coins into small pieces -- a "bit" of silver"small change" worth a few cents at the time is what you've found --way to go.

[T Hunter]

Dont know yet will get weight Monday . Thanks for the info

[ivan salis]

from the size of the bit shown along side the modern quarter most likely it came from a 2 reale * similar in size to a modern quarter .--25 cents cut into 8 about 3 cents "bit size"

[divewrecks]

Nice silver quarter...

Stan

[dirtywhitboy]

1/2 of 1/2 never found one of those. sweet find!!

[T Hunter]

That little cobb weighs 0.7 grams. Thanks for all your help.Mark

[Mackaydon]

I agree with Ivan. Now knowing the weight of the coin (0.7grams) and knowing that a pre-1729 8-reales weighed 27.468 grams, this coin weighing 2.55% of an 8-reales is the same value as about 3 cents to the dollar (8-reales).
Don.......

[goldeagle]

spanish reale

[ivan salis]

a two reale coin was about the size of a modern quarter dollar and was a a similar "value" 1/4 th of a dollar --with 8 reales being equal to 1 dollar ( the us dollar was based off the spanish 8 reale in weight and silver purity % )

taking a 2 reale / 25 cent type value coin and cutting into 8 pieces (with this being one of the 8 pieces of the 2 reale) would give it the value of 3 1/8 cents at the time .--ie a 3 cent piece of cut silver --due to its small size the only IDible thing I see is the balls at the end of the cross used by the mexico mint . other than that thats about as far as I can go.

[mad4wrecks]

There is a good, easy to understand chart here, for beginners anyhow:

http://blindkat.hegewisch.net/pirates/money.html