Hi. I found this strange looking coin in a 25 kilos coin lot. Isn't this a very rare coin? I believed I've found the coin as a counter marked coin issued under Dutch government at St.Martins island. Can somebody confirm that this coin is rare? A bit strange to find in a huge kilos-lot but at the same time it could be regarded as a destroyed coin and exactly for that reason it was throw in to the kilo-lot?
Ok, from the bits and pieces visible on this coin i would say no, not rare per se. But, as far as the counter mark goes, i have no clue on that one. You will hafta wait for one of our countermark collectors to stop by 4 that answer. I do know that its a desirable piece, or atleast I would like to own it. This is how they would make change in the day,just cut an 8 reales coin into pieces. What you have here is what they refer to as 2 bits. It started off as an 8 reales coin and when cut into 4 quarters you would have 2 now instead of the original 8. Hence the song or more popularly, the infamous knock people do, unbeknownst to them. Its actually a neat part of our history and these spanish coins were actually legal tender here until 1857 i believe. Im no expert tho
While I agree that it is a "piece" that has been cut and then countermarked, it is nowhere near big enough to be a quarter (2 bits) of an 8 reales coin. Look at his last picture, compare what you can see of the legends on it to a whole coin of the same type. The upper right quarter of that, is a lot bigger than what he has in his picture.
Well, now that you mention it, this must be a 4 or 2 reales coin im guessing. Altho ive only seen the 8 cut into change before.(admittedly i dont collect these) So at this point idk what the denomimation of this most interesting coin is. Bummer Edit: would it be a good idea to move this to another forum??? Exo or world coins maybe?
Is it possibly a 18 stuiver like this: http://www.coinfactswiki.com/wiki/St._Martin_(1817-20)_18_stuivers
How do I move this post to world coins? I'm on a iPhone with tapatalk app. Do I have to be at a computer in order to move the post?
Looks like it to me, I love learning about stuff like this and will keep a hawk eye open for another,man did u see the auction price realized!
I believe one of the mods could do this task 4 you. That is where you might find someone who specializes in these. Well maybe
Yes, it could be a fake. Seems to good to be true to find such rarity in a coin lot like I bought. So I consider it as a fake until otherwise is proven. The pictures are adjusted in color to make the legend easier to read. I'll post some non-enhanced pictures so it can be easier to determine whether it is real or fake
The only way to determine if it is genuine or not is to have an expert examine it in hand. The page this link - http://www.coinfactswiki.com/wiki/St._Martin_(1817-20)_18_stuivers - from above takes you to - it has a typo on it. Where they provide the weight, they have the decimal point in the wrong place, it should read 5.44gm. But as noted on that page these are well known for being considerably underweight, so even weighing your example won't tell you anything with certainty. Could it be fake ? Yes. Could it be genuine ? Yes.
