[Game] World Coins Time Machine… Counting Backward by Year! (Plus Prize Coin)

I've got at least three for 1782.

The first two I'll post may not look like much, but they make up for that in backstory.

First, a 1782-A French Guiana (Colony of Cayenne) 2-sous piece. I think these were referred to as "black dogs" in the colonial Caribbean. This one happens to be a contemporary counterfeit. With these, as with some kinds of British coppers, I believe the counterfeits outnumber the regal issues, but I don't think there's much difference in the numismatic value today.



The coin above is part of what I call my "Colonial Trio". This trio of dug coins were all metal detecting finds at the site of the old Hampton Plantation on the northern tip of Saint Simons Island, Georgia. This very historic site was where a live oak tree was cut to make the sternpost for the USS Constitution. Aaron Burr stayed there as a guest in 1804 while he was laying low after killing Alexander Hamilton in their infamous duel. A catastrophic hurricane struck the island while he was there.

Just a few feet away from the French Cayenne coin, I found another 1782, this one an Irish "Hibernia" halfpenny. It also happens to be a contemporary counterfeit, which is also common for this type. At the time, the supply of official, regal coinage for small change fell far short of the demands of commerce, so lots of privately-struck imitations like these circulated in the colonies.



These two 1782 coins were found so relatively close together that I have a hunch they were dropped at the same time, probably from the same pocket. And there's a chance that could have been Aaron Burr's pocket! This is the sort of stuff that was in circulation in 1804.

The third coin in my "Colonial Trio" found at Hampton was a 1779 Mexico City 2-reales piece, but it's not relevant to this thread just yet. I'll try to remember to repost it when we get back to 1779 in the narrative here.

I also dug a nice 1929 quarter near the three colonial coins. It was no doubt lost by an earlier visitor who, like me, was exploring the old ruins at Hampton.

The next 1782 coin I have to post here was not a detector find by me personally (I bought it), but it may have been dug by someone else. It's a bit porous. It is a second 1782 Irish Hibernia halfpenny, also a contemporary counterfeit, and interestingly double-struck. This one was briefly in my "Eclectic Box" collection.

 

I also have a 1781 Spanish Mexico half-real in my detector finds album. I dug it from an old colonial-era sand roadbed, though Civil War buttons and artifacts were found in the same immediate vicinity, so it was likely lost during that era. Most of the silver circulating here in Georgia up to the Civil War was older Spanish colonial stuff, though the US half dimes and dimes circulated too, in smaller numbers.

I don't think I have a photo of it and the coin is pretty rough anyway. But I'll use this post as a 1781 placeholder in case I can get that half-real out of my album and make a picture later.

 

Here's another Russian 5-kopeck "whopper copper" from 1780.



And a neat love token, though in this case the 1780 date was hand-engraved and no trace details of the original host coin survived. As I recall, it was a bit small to have been a British halfpenny, so maybe a farthing. British origin (American colonial, Canadian, etc) seems to be a given, since it was engraved in English:

"A LAVENDER - T HORTON / LOVE ME TRUE AS I DO YOU / 1780"


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Normally I avoid two-sided love tokens because I feel I must know the type if not the date of the host coin (and they drive me nuts when all that is an unsolvable mystery). But this one was inexpensive and just really neat (the surname "Lavender" was fun, too). Plus it was kind of touching. I sold or swapped it to @Savoyspecial at some point, as I recall. It might have later made its way back to me, but if so, I'll be darned if I can remember what I did with it.