I got hammered two days in a row and I need serious help

[smokeythecat]

Only had a chance to get for about two hours today with a friend. We went to a very early colonial site, several counties away from where I found the old stuff yesterday. We were near a road, road has been in existence for 300 years. We cleaned up on aluminum. lots of aluminum.

i had the Deus set on "kill' with the 9' eliptical hf coil running at 28.8 khz. After the thirtieth or so piece of aluminum I got a tighter, higher tone from something small. This was down 4" in a sandy plowed field.

It's copper and it's hammered. i have taken pics turning the coin 90 degrees with each shot. Can you tell me what this is? People went through here as early at 1580 or so.

First, what I consider the obverse:

View attachment IMG_0499.jpg View attachment IMG_0501.jpgView attachment IMG_0502.jpg
and now the reverse. It is about 17mm in diameter. The camera is used is a 21 megapixel, so hopefully you can pull off some details for an idea. I was at first concerned it was iron, but fortunately, it is not. It rang up a solid 80 on the machine., which is not the range for iron.
View attachment IMG_0504.jpg

 

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[sutphin]

NOT SURE BUT NICE.

 

[smokeythecat]

I've been checking what photos I could find for a comparison on the net. If I had to guess, due to who lived there, i.e., English folks, Charles I or James I of England, perhaps the Scottish farthings. HOWEVER, it is possibly something different, even older. I don't know squat about the real old stuff. I don't actually collect coins, just what I dig or buy on impulse because I figure I'll never dig one. And it's possible it's a contemporary counterfeit or even French as the French army camped within a mile of this place in 1781. This is my NINTH hammered coin found in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey this year. NINE. James I farthing, Elizabeth I shilling, 17th century Spanish Maravedis, 17th century 1/2 reale cob, the two Spanish coins from yesterday and the two Romans from yesterday. The Romans while flat, are about the diameter of a .22 bullet. Now granted, most of these look like dirt, but... I was going very slow,swinging slow for the ones from yesterday in a nail pit, and the Deus with the 9" eliptical coil running at 28.8 khm nailed them with certainty. I need to wake up...next week. Ready to retire and just dig. I never would have believed this possible if it actually hadn't happened.

Better not however, health insurance is important.

 

[against the wind]

Excellent outing,, very nice recovery. I'm sure one of our TNET brethren will I.D. that coin.
Congratulations

 

[smokeythecat]

One idea I'm bouncing around, now that' I've looked for a few hours to find a match. Coinage was so scarce, as were metals in general in colonial, especially 17th century colonial America. this could easily be a contemporary counterfeit of either a British farthing or maravedis. Of course, it could be much, much older. Hopefully somebody can guess better than I can. It was definitely cast, then hammered into its present form.

 

[CRUSADER]

Personally I don't think its a coin. Not sure but it looks more like molten metal.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Smokey, I reprocessed the pics in hopes of bringing out some
better detail. Hope it helps someone identify the item.

Either way, it's a great find of an ancient item! Congrats!

 

[Mzjavert]

Interesting lil find. Hope its a very old coin.

 

[pepperj]

The bottom row of photos i'd say it could resemble a melted button, the bump being the shank.

 

[devldog]

Smokey, Congrat's on a very interesting piece. Here's hoping you can get this ID'd soon. Cool looking piece of History for sure.

 

[smokeythecat]

Thanks all. I think this one will remain unsolved. The "bump" is less than half a mm high, so not enough material there for a shank. Melted coin or button theory is interesting. I think it was deliberately made INTO a coin, and yes, possibly from a copper button. Here's a hypothesis. Coins were so hard to get back then, say you broke the shank off your copper button but didn't lose the button itself, and you're no silversmith. Copper melts at a medium range, so melt it down and "flatten" it into a coin shape, perhaps groat or small maravedis size. You could then use it as a coin, in that climate and that time, most any small coins were used and valued. I have some George III contemporary counterfeit coins I have found. I was thinking of the Albany church pennies in the Red Book of US Coins for my inspiration. The details in the center of the "coin" are impressed into it, not raised like you'd have on a stamped coin. I found several pieces of a badly deteriorated pewter spoon within a few feet of it, nothing modern. I appreciate all your input.

 

[Blak bart]

Almost looks like a crown symbol on it. At first I was thinking maravedi, but who knows !!

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on another unusual find

 

[smokeythecat]

It is unusual. Maryland was settled in 1634, the Spaniards were here before that, but didn't colonize it. We find a scrap aluminum can and four feet later, a King George III halfpenny. It's a challenge.

 

[sagittarius98]

Almost looks like a crown symbol on it. At first I was thinking maravedi, but who knows !!

I definitely see a crown on it. To me it looks like a button design more than a coin though, it might be a button turned into a counterfeit coin. It doesn't look like an original minted coin to me.

 

[smokeythecat]

Sagittarius98, I think we're both heading the same direction on this one. Contemporary counterfeit of a small denomination coin, late 17th century. On the same site we have found 1 reale, pre 1750, two 17th century Maravedis, colonial buttons, KG I, II and III coppers, French 25th Regiment button, 1781, from the camp, musket balls, cut piece of 8, crotal bells and pieces and I forget what. A few of the items I found years ago. Hadn't been back until last year. Pottery pieces include 18th century redware and Rhenish stoneware. Also some later items and I found (years ago) two War of 1812 buttons, across the street.

 

[smokeythecat]

Hope to have a positive id later today.