I've got a 1645 coin, Susan B anthony dollar sized, pretty thin. on the front side, it says Nostris Pars Reddita Terris. In the center, all I can make out is a six sided figure inside another circle- It very much makes me think of an old fashioned fort. The back says Nil Nis? (I or T, possibly L ) Consi? then gunk over at least one more letter. The center has a crown, and a shield, and I'm pretty sure a pattern of things, like * * * I know its hard without a picture, but any info would be cool, even if its just what language its in I'll see if I can find a digital camera, but..
Sounds like it might be Latin - which narrows it down to Europe and the Middle East for that time period. to CoinTalk, and please try and post a picture so those of us with copies of the Standard Catalog of World Coins 17th Century volume can try to ID it for you.
It's a jeton issued for the `Kings Counsel', the king in this case being Louis XIV of France. The obverse legend should read Nil Nisi Consilio (`nothing without counsel') around a crowned shield of France.v The reverse has `Victory' flying. Different jetons were issued on a yearly basis (sometimes two or three different designs) for the various admininstrations, of which there were many. As such the subject is quite vast . There were in fact three different designs for the Kings Counsel jetons for 1645. They were also issued in both silver and in latten (a copper based amalgam). You didn't mention which metal yours appeared to be made of, but judging from your description it sounds to be in a pretty poor state so I wouldn't go taking out a loan on the basis of its potential value
I am astounded that you figured that out/knew that Ian It seems to be one solid metal composition, so i'd say its silver. I havent yet found a picture of my specific one yet,so I don't know what the center of the reverse should look like, but I did manage to find one on ebay with two shields. Yeah, I didn't really think it would be terribly expensive, but still neat to find a 360 year old anything.
Jetons is my `thing', not that i'm any expert. Just an expert amateur in the making . Here's one of my one's in silver from the `Kings Counsel' series of jetons and dated 1658. It has the single shield of France. Many in the series have the shield of France and Navarre.
