1776 King George III Counterfeit... A wicked good find!

[Scrappy]

It’s good to be back!

After a hike-turned-hunt with my boy yesterday, I cleaned the one and only copper coin recovered. Turned out to be a 1776 KGiii.

Now for those of you out there scratching their heads...yes, there are no regal Half pennies made that year or for quite a few years surrounding that date. I knew it was a counterfeit right away but couldn’t find a match with any Machin Mills varieties.






So I reached out to the experts. With the help of Iron Patch and a few others on FB group “Colonial and Early US coins and Artifacts” the variety was found.



76003CVS1776 GEO-III8.1gmVF, CHOICE, DARK BRN. CLEAR 6. VERY NICE REVERSE. 4 TINY DIGSOBV NEAR MOUTH. GEORGIVS TRIUMPHO FAMILY. $520

(Thanks for the ID, IP)

The Georgius Triumpho family is a group of coins I’m still reading about. There may be a loose tie with this 1776 counterfeit, Washington Tokens, and Nova Constellatio’s but there doesn’t appear to be any conclusive evidence.

https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/WASHTriumpho.intro.html

Again I’m still early in on my reading, but I believe this Counterfeit was likely manufactured in Birmingham or Greenwich England, perhaps by the same mint that manufactured Nova Constellatios.

Rare? Sure is!

Try to Google 1776 King George half penny and a very short list of ANY variety will appear. I’m over the moon about this coin - certainly my rarest and best counterfeit and a killer way to start 2018. And it all started by finding a scattering of foundation rocks while hiking with my 4- year old. Good thing I bring a detector everywhere in my truck!

Here’s the rest of the finds.



Enjoy and good hunts,

Steve

 

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[Scrappy]

Look at you pulling a nice ctft while I’m stuck in the snow and freezing cold. Killer copper buddy and great job with the assists from others to get a proper id. 11” of snow tomorrow!!!! This winter absolutely sucks! But I’m going to hunt a certain shoreline next Friday

Well unless 95 is blocked, you can always visit. Now it’s not early/mid 16th century so you’ll need to settle with late 16th C onward...

 

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[Subterranean]

Scrappy, Congratulations on digging history and the fantastic saves. Your cavalryman obviously charged into artillery, but when he was brand new, he was made in America by Barclay, one of their early ones, circa 1933-35, and looked like this one here:


Cheers, Sub

 

[Scrappy]

Excellent find and congrats. Just a note, you may be overstating its rarity. Still considered a better date/variety for the KGIII counterfeit series. I do have a few examples in my collection along with 2 MM examples of the same date.

The amount of a particular type of coin you have is not indicative of its rarity. It’s a rare coin and is rarely dug. Did you dig all yours? If you did, that’s incredible. I have four identical GW buttons of a variety where there are less than 200 known. Because I have four doesn’t make them any less rare.

Either way, I never overstated it’s rareness. I said it was rare and it is. Not my words but from others who know a hell of a lot more than I do. I’m proud of this find and don’t really care if it’s rare. I do care that it’s Rarely Dug and identifiable with a date -

Thanks for looking

Steve

 

[Phishfarmer]

Awesome find! I always keep a metal detector in the truck too.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Outstanding find Steve, and great job on the research. You're accumulating quite a collection of early coppers ....

 

[metalev4]

A really nice and unique recovery Steve. Excellent find

 

[Iron Patch]

Any non regal date counterfeit is a cool find! I've only ever found one. (1773 Irish)

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[Relicific]

Wow that’s a super rare copper.
Congrats

 

[rickb2202]

Wow nice coin brass trigger guard and a headless horseman !!! What a great day. Congrats

 

[Iron Patch]

There's many great British counterfeits that exist, and it's too bad we seldom or never see them. Hand-cut really crude ones, impossible dates, and even British-Irish mules. There's one I really like that's a 1776 Hibernia, but has the bust of British George III. It, like some others would probably slip under the radar for many because they wouldn't realize it was a British and not Irish George III bust. In counterfeits that makes a big difference.

 

[Iron Patch]

Pic

 

[Scrappy]

Pic

Haha, I love the Geoiii bust on the Hibernia. That’s a KILLER counterfeit. I have regal versions of both the KG3 Hibernia and British, so I find that one incredible

 

[Scrappy]

Congratulations Steve and I'm glad you solved the mystery. That's a nice trigger guard too-any idea of what type of gun it came from?

No idea about the trigger guard. Broken and unmarked but I’m pretty sure it’s 19th century.

 

[Scrappy]

Outstanding find Steve, and great job on the research. You're accumulating quite a collection of early coppers ....

Thanks Bill. This one almost slipped by me and I’m glad I caught it before it went in my display’s Iron Cauldron. This one is going in a special display I’m designing for Late colonial & transitional coinage. Cheers bud

 

[WaterScoop]

Very very nice find also Congratulations on creating memories for you and your son.
Time spent together will forever pay you dividends.

 

[Scrappy]

Wow that’s a super rare copper.
Congrats

Thanks. I think the “impossible date” ones are so cool. Seeing other ones found on Tnet always made me a bit envious. If I knew what it was beforehand I would have tried cleaning it a bit more gently because I may have been able to save a little detail. I wasn’t harsh, but after cleaning hundreds of 200-300+ y.o coppers, I’ve learned to expedite the process.

Cheers

 

[Scrappy]

Any non regal date counterfeit is a cool find! I've only ever found one. (1773 Irish)

I don’t remember seeing that one. It must have been an Old IP find. Any pics?

 

[Arachnofreak]

Congrats on a great find!

Charlie

 

[sutphin]

NICE FINDS SCRAP.