My first 1700s silver! (HALF REALE)

cam9457 · Jan 11, 2009

My first 1700's silver! (HALF REALE)

I was out today with an md buddy even though we had a fresh coating of snow today and found a 1781 silver coin! I think it's some kind of Spanish reale? It does have a hole drilled in it for some reason. Any ideas as to what it is and why someone would drill such a small hole through it? Thanks for looking and HH!

watercolor · Jan 12, 2009

Re: My first 1700's silver! (HALF REALE) UPDATE: hole doesn't go through

CRUSADER said:
cam9457 said:

No the hole doesn't look silver, just black. I've just tried a lot of stuff, metal dental pick, small nail and such and couldn't budge anything but rust, just seems strange

Click to expand...

Personally the gunk is part of your find. Trust me after years of this type of thing, you will be disappointed if the pin went though. It will feel like you have damaged the goods. Leave it as part of your find, it took years to develop & what good will it do to prove a hole is a hole. Many people clean off iron rust from buckles. To me its the pin & should be left, get what I mean. Its part of its history, leave it & be happy with its story.

Could this be a quality control issue during minting? . . . An impurity in the silver?

Just my thought. . .

Don in SJ · Jan 12, 2009

Re: My first 1700's silver! (HALF REALE) UPDATE: hole doesn't go through

Whatever is rusted to the hole and coin.

I agree with Crusader, there is a hole bu it is plugged up with most likely whatever went through it to begin with. About 30% of my half real coins are holed.

Don