I'm not a serious collector, but love old coins. I've been going through my Mom's house recently (she died a couple of years ago at age 86) and I've found some old coins. Mostly the usual...buffalo nickles, liberty dimes, silver dollars, steel WW II pennies, etc. But I have no idea about this one. I'm not even sure it's really a coin...maybe some type of commemorative piece or something like that. I've done the basic Googling and found nothing. Thought I'd post it here and see if anybody can help... It says "Commonwealth" on one side and "Massachusetts" on the other. The date appears to be 1783. I've scanned it in and posted the pics on imageshack... http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/72/1783coin10lc.jpg http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/6153/1783coin23ic.jpg Thanks in advance for any help in identification.
Tiger welcome to the forum :thumb: I am sorry that I cant id this coin but I assure you someone will be along very soon who will give you tons of info it's that sort of place LOL De Orc
See if there are any markings on the edge of the coin. The denomination on many old coins were on the edge.
Looks like a Massachusetts Cent or Half cent. Should have cent or half cent on the shield on the eagle.I can't see it in the picture.
Looks like a copy to me. The lettering does not look at all right and the real coins were only made in 1787 & 88.
Dock...I think you're right. After you identified it, I was able to find more examples. Yeah, the letters look "weird"...and I didn't see any other examples like that. Even the ones almost worn smooth still retained more "normal" lettering. Oh well, it was worth checking out. Thanks for your help! I may be posting some more pics of coins I've found recently...obviously, you guys know your stuff and I've found the right place for these kinda questions.
Welcome to the world of going blind looking for things on coins. Hope your considering becoming a collector. Sounds like you have a good start. You weren't specific as to the condition of the other coins. As you'll see if you stick to this forum for answers, there will be numerous recomendations to buy a thing called a Red Book. For a start you'll learn a little about coin conditons, amounts minted, history of the coin and an approximate value. I really like those 1943 steel cents. They aren't worth much even in great condition but are sure an oddity in our history of coinage.
That coin got me excited at first because it is one of my favorite colonial issues. Anyway the lettering is all weird-looks like a child made the lettering, but the EAGLE and INDIAN WARRIOR look pretty real to me. Anyone else see what I'm talking about? The lettering is definitely fake though.
