✅ SOLVED Copper Coin ID Help Needed

[NJLargeCent]

Hello. Long-time visitor, 1st post. Your kind help is needed.

First, some background:
Found the coin below this past Feb. (mild winter in So. NJ) while exploring my yard for the umpteenth time. This was actually my last target for the day as I was walking from my backyard to my garage to put away my md. It was found no more than 4 inches from the side of my front driveway, about 8 inches down. (Go figure: Despite many hunts at neighbors' yards, parks, and schools, potentially my best find to date was unearthed in the small spit of land next to my driveway.) At first, I thought it was just a toasted quarter and didn't think much more of it. When I got inside and compared it to a quarter, however, it was clearly a bit larger. Since then I've been trying like mad to ID it. Unfortunately, I made a rookie cleaning mistake by doing the peroxide soak method one-too-many times, which further toasted an already pretty much toasted coin. Pics below are post-cleaning; sorry they are not top quality.

The few details I know:
It's copper (has slight nick on edge that exposes copper), exactly 25 mm across, with a right-facing male bust. Seems to be a "23" on the reverse (see pic), but not sure. Other than that, letters appear to be seen on both sides, but I could never be absolutely sure of any, even with a good magnifier. I've looked at it so many times that I found myself seeing what I wanted to see.

From research and because of process of elimination using 25 mm and right-facting bust factors, I've hypothesized that it could be a 1723 Hibernia copper (see Hibernia sample pics and superimposition at bottom), though that could be wishful thinking. The bust's nose, which was somewhat deformed after cleaning, did protrude like that of a Hibernia before cleaning. Also, I can swear I see the outline of a woman with arm extended holding a branch on the reverse, but again, that could be my imagination.

Your kind assistance with a possible ID is greatly appreciated. Cheers!

Front pics:



Reverse pics:




Sample image (actual Hibernia):



Sample image superimposed over my coin (sample image placed slightly right to show comparison):

 

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[oldsoapy]

All l can say is , well done on the post and that you are most probably correct. Hutch.

 

[NJLargeCent]

Update:
Using gradual super-impositioning, I'm pretty certain that the coin is a Wood's Hibernia:



Thanks to all for looking. Will post more unidentified finds. Cheers.

 

[granthansen]

Hey all... just a little info on how LC and I used Photoshop "forensics" to identify this copper. Obviously, LC did all the hard work and we were pretty certain his theory was correct. By highlighting the major features of the Hibernia in question, I extracted just those features from the coin. We then took LC's find and overlaid on top of the extraction, and a high opacity... just enough to match up text, bust, etc. Because our brains want so desperately to make random bumps and dots into patterns (stare at a cloud long enough and you'll see a shape), once we thought we lined up a match, we moved the overlay around to many different spots to ensure our brains weren't fooling us. Once confident, we increased the opacity to allow more of the features to shine through, as LC has posted above. All in all, fun detective work!