My grandfather passed away and the family gave me his "religious books". Inside some of the books I found several coins inside plastic folders. I have been able to identify some of them, for instance, several British Trade dollars from the late 1800s and early 1900s. But many of them are much older and not in English. I cannot find them using Google. They look too good to be as old as the dates say, so I am wondering if they are real?? This Italian guy from 1791 is clean but looks worn But this 1776 Spanish (?) guy looks uncirculated And I cannot attach any more files in this post, so I will have to post the others in the next one. Can anyone help me identify these and is there a chance they they are not genuine? _blink_
I'll post just two more of the coins. This 1771 Spanish (?) guy is in really good shape And I don't even have a clue what the next one is, but can it really be more than 300 years old ... ?? Any help identifying them and determining if they are genuine is really appreciated ! _blink_
No reason why these should not be genuine, but weights and dimensions would help to clarify. 2nd and third coins are Spanish * reales (Pieces of Eight) from Mexico mints. The third one being holed will be substantially devalued. 4th one is a Lion Daalder from the Netherlands. On the first one, have you mixed up the pictures? The heads do not match the reverse shown... Paddy
Does being holed (pierced) devalue me too ? Yes I did (mix up the pictures), all new stuff for me! Thanks for the info Paddy, I will look them up. Here's the correct pictures for the first coin, which looks Italian. _blink_
Yes - it is Italian - Piastra of 120 Grana of Naples and Sicily. Should weigh about 27.5gms. My 2002 Krause gives price in the USD 100 to 150 bracket, but I suspect would make more now. Paddy
That 1776 looks amazing, it always amazes me that a two hundred year old coin can still look that nice.
I hope I look that good when I'm that old. :yes:Yes !:yes: That's what I'm saying, it looks gorgoues (like BU) to be so old. That made me wonder if these might be replicas or something similer. So I appreciate the help here. _blink_
As before - the weight will give the clearest confirmation of whether it is true or a fake. The 1776 coin should weigh about 27gms - if it is much under it will be a copy. It looks ok in the photo, and these are not particularly scarce coins, so it would not be unexpected that it is right. Paddy
Btw -, if you want to see a seriously old silver coin, look at this: Aethelred Penny from 975 to 1016 AD - 1000 years old! This is one in my own collection.
Roman Republic denarius from my collection circa 120 BC. Yep your coins are that old, fer sure. :smile
That's all u got? My relative has a 400 bc coin, I also have a roman320-360 ad coin that looks like it was just minted.
I have had time to look up your Lion Daalder in more detail - it is from the Netherlands province of Kampen and is listed in Krause KM 42.2 with Lily mint mark. My 1996 Krause list it as USD 60+, but I think this under-rates it quite a bit. It looks in very nice condition with plenty of detail, and I would expect it to be GBP 120 to 150 now.
I hope you don't mind, but I kind of used your eight reales for practice. You had it where it was pretty easy for me, but here it is: Just thought you might like to see what I came up with
