Very nice - but as it stands not British - Spanish 8 Escudos minted in Mexico. To be British it would need the George III counterstamp, indicating we had stolen it off the Spanish and re-issued for British use - a bit like this:
You will be glad to hear, I hope that this is 0.925 silver! As to holey coins - they were used quite a lot right across the British Empire, but inconsistently. I don't think you can say for any one territory "all the coins were holey". I think it was a style picked up from the far east, where the Chinese and Koreans had used holey coins for millennia, and would to carry them about by threading them on strings.
Amazing (to me, anyway) likeness of Her Majesty...wearing braided hair in front of Her ear(s)! Queen-Empress since 1876; at time of coin date, HM had been on the British throne for well over 50 years. Is this image common? Or maybe only in India? I do not recall seeing it previously.
This image is common on most, if not all imperial coinage in India from 1862 until her death in 1901. It even features on the gold Mohur coins, which are very handsome. It was used also in Hong Kong for a while on the 10 cent coin, and probably some other places, although I can't think of where just yet. A very similar image was used on the Gothic Florin in the UK, and also on the famous Gothic Crown:
That is a really fine piece of mintage art and I am envious, as are many others here. Thanks for sharing it! But: is it a coin, or a medallion? It looks to have been struck as a commemorative of the Worsley Hall visit by HM Victoria...and I wonder about the special nature of that visit. According to Wikipedia: The hall is of particular historical significance because it was in this building that Francis Egerton, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, James Brindley and John Gilbert planned the Bridgewater Canal and supervised its building. Bridgewater Canal was celebrating its 90th year in 1851. Perhaps this was the focus of HM's visit. All that aside...your pics show an enormously beautiful and desireable item, in apparent pristine condition. To posess such a treasure would be wonderful, indeed. Does the designator BHM 2414 refer to a museum exhibit?
OK - lets try the new system with a coin from the very beginning of "Britain". This is a Durotriges tribe Stater produced between about 50 BC and 50 AD in the South West of England - which just happens to be where I live!
... and here are 3 Silver Units from the Iceni tribe (they of Boudicca fame). The right hand one I believe is inscribed ECE which is representative of one of the rulers of that time.
Sorry for the confusion. BHM 2414 refers to the catalogue # in L. Brown's British Historical Medals. It is a 52mm medal which I intended to illustrate the use of the braided hair gothic bust in the middle of the 19th century.
You did just that, and much more...any confusion was on me, not due to your perfectly illustrated Majestic Braid. Very nice slab, never to be mine!