I got this coin the other day. I figured it was a woods. When i got it i hoped that electrolysis would help and it did. Now i have no idea what it is. There is mention able a farthing and half penny. I don’t know what i got. It was crazy cheap just seeing if anyone has an idea. This is my only one so I’m clueless. I hope there is some meat on its bones for someone to help me out.
Yep, looks like Wood's Hibernia to me. You're lucky you got such a result from electrolysis. That can be risky with corroded coppers. The very first large cent I ever dug while metal detecting was a 1796-1807 Draped Bust cent- I could tell that much by peeking through the crust. So I "zapped" it with electrolysis, in hopes of maybe making the date visible. I must have left it hooked up and bubbling in the solution too long. When I pulled it out, it was "burnt up"- just a featureless slug, cratered like the surface of the moon. Lesson learned. Electrolysis did pretty good on silver, but for those unstable, corroded coppers, I learned to avoid that.
PS- what's the diameter, or at least a size comparison between that and a US cent/nickel/quarter? That'll tell us whether you have a farthing or a halfpenny. From the scale of the fingertips in the photo, it looks farthing-ish to me.
Yes it’s a Woods Hibernia but I believe it’s an early colonial coin that circulated in a very young America, before we became a nation. It should be in the Red Book.
Here are a couple of examples. These pieces were made to circulate in Ireland by William Wood, who also made the Rosa America pieces. Like many British coins, a fair number of them found their way to the American colonies. Hibernia farthing Hibernia half penny
here it is. Exactly an inch. I looked for about an hour on google today. I couldn’t come up with a size difference. So if you know. Please educate me.
