1600s French Billon Coin, Pewter Britannia button

[Ahab8]

This morning I woke up to see my buddy Oxbow had found his 3rd Mass silver. My hats off to you sir. That's a hell of an accomplishment. I checked the weather and realized it was a poor day to ask the guys to get on a roof. It was supposed to rain hard around mid morning. So this gave me a rare day off. I tried to think of a close by site that had finds early enough to possibly have a Mass silver hiding in the dirt. This was a direct affect of seeing a tree coin posted. So I went to a site that's given up a few 17th century buckles and pewter buttons. I put my new 12x15 sef coil on and hunted an area that I've hunted the hell out of. I got a mid 60s signal and pulled out some weird wafer thin broken black disc. Thought absolutely nothing of it. I continued the hunt and found a pewter button....then the rains came. So home I went. I emptied out my finds and decided to rinse the the little disc just in case. A bit of the black came off and it sure looked silver. So I lemon juiced it to try to soften up the black gunk. A bit more came off and wow I could see XIII. Then I could see pellets that looked like a Mass silver. The I saw LAN and though it was for sure a Mass silver. Then I saw a crown and then LVD. Now I have no clue what the hell it is. So I text a pic to Bill and Brad. Bill sees a fleur de lis and says French silver. I had to go get new brakes on my truck but when I got home I was able to clean it enough to see a bit of detail on the back. Finally about ten minutes ago with assist from Brad and Bill I stumbled on a 1693 French Billon coin. My pics aren't oriented correctly and I'm too damn tired to fix them. Unfortunately the date portion is broken off but I'm pretty sure this is my 3rd 17th century silver. The pewter button looks to have the Britannia reverse on it. Pretty good for a very short hunt. This sef coil seems to be pretty darn good
I cannot explain the LAN outside the beaded border. But I swear it's there. It's not easy to see in the pics

 

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[Professor of Engineering]

Awesome coin find, Congratualtions!

 

[Loco-Digger]

I bet your sure glad it rained so you could get some hunting in. Congrats on the amazing finds.

 

[PBR]

Congrats. Id be really happy to find that. Still waiting for my french silver coin.

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Man, that's an awesome find. It almost looks like it was struck over a Mass silver with the lettering on the outside. Very cool!

 

[Scrappy]

The beast was awakened by Oxbow! Killer finds Abe. You're on a roll dude!!!!

Yeehaaaa!

 

[TNGUNS]

Dang, when I called ya I hadn't even seen this. Congrats Brother. Amazing finds.

 

[screwynewy]

I can always count on you to have some quality finds to show off. Congrats on another successful day and your 3rd 17th century coin.

 

[Z.K.]

Aw, it's just a fragment. You got my hopes up and everything.

In all seriousness, this is not simply your third 17th century silver coin, but one from a totally different economic system. Each of your 1600s coins originated from a different continent, no? That's pretty damn hard to pull off anywhere in the world.

Congrats!!

 

[Scrappy]

Aw, it's just a fragment. You got my hopes up and everything.

In all seriousness, this is not simply your third 17th century silver coin, but one from a totally different economic system. Each of your 1600s coins originated from a different continent, no? That's pretty damn hard to pull off anywhere in the world.

Congrats!!

Ah, Good point man. Coudos!

 

[Iron Patch]

Well it's not 1600s... it's MOST likely one you can call 1500s! (95%+ maybe even higher probability)

 

[Iron Patch]

Man, that's an awesome find. It almost looks like it was struck over a Mass silver with the lettering on the outside. Very cool!

Good eye. So I guess I can't tease him anymore. These were struck over various coins, the vast majority being French Douzains... which dated up to 1610, but I don't ever remember seeing one that was not 1500s. It was restruck as 15 Deniers in the 1690s at various mints, something like 1690 to 1701, and the earliest and latest dates range from uncommon to quite rare. (1700s ones are rare) It also may have been counterstamped with a fleur de lys, but obviously that is something we'll never know unless the rest is found. So... basically it's both a 1500s coin and a 1600s coin.

 

[Ahab8]

Good eye. So I guess I can't tease him anymore. These were struck over various coins, the vast majority being French Douzains... which dated up to 1610, but I don't ever remember seeing one that was not 1500s. It was restruck as 15 Deniers in the 1690s at various mints, something like 1690 to 1701, and the earliest and latest dates range from uncommon to quite rare. (1700s ones are rare) It also may have been counterstamped with a fleur de lys, but obviously that is something we'll never know unless the rest is found. So... basically it's both a 1500s coin and a 1600s coin.

Not sure my little brain can keep up. So this likely started as a 1500s coin and was restruck around 1690 over a Mass silver??

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Not sure my little brain can keep up. So this likely started as a 1500s coin and was restruck around 1690 over a Mass silver??

I think IP was suggesting that I was on the right track with it being struck over a coin, but it probably wasn't a Mass silver, probably a 1500's French coin. Either way I only remember one or two similar coins posted. Super cool! I'm going to try and do a little research.

 

[Ahab8]

I think IP was suggesting that I was on the right track with it being struck over a coin, but it probably wasn't a Mass silver, probably a 1500's French coin. Either way I only remember one or two similar coins posted. Super cool! I'm going to try and do a little research.

Ok thanks bud that makes sense. I thought for sure it was a Mass silver when I first started cleaning it. All I could see was the beaded edge and what looked like LAN. But it was so darn thin. This thing is thinner than paper. Scary to even touch it

 

[Ahab8]

This pic shows what looks like LAN the best

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

I see what you mean. Take a look at the bottom of the second picture:

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Another absolutely killer coin Abe It was a lot of fun trying to figure out what it was. I thought perhaps is was an over struck coin since that's the only way I can think of to explain the lettering on the top edge. What doesn't make sense is it didn't seem to distort the host coin.

I oriented them for you. These Louis IIII coins date from 1643-1715. The earlier Louis III coins looked very different.

 

[trapperart]

Very nice find congrats

 

[terpfan]

I'd be super pleased with that find, Abe. Do you think your coin was fractured off and not cut? It wouldn't be surprising since the coin is paper thin. Maybe there is a chance the rest of the coin is nearby. It might be worth excavating out a bigger hole in the vicinity, just in case the rest of the coin can be found.