I have two coins I received from my Grandmother and I am trying to determine what they are and their worth. One looks like a Spanish Reales and the other a French coin from the Reign of Henri II. However, being a novice and not knowing not knowing much about mint marks etc. I have a hard time knowing much about their exact provenance and no clue about their value. Any advice is welcome! Attached are pictures.
Howdy kunst - Welcome to the Forum !! First of all I need to ask you to try and weigh & measure the diameter of the French coin. I believe it is supposed be either a 1556-M ( Toulouse mint ) teston or a demi teston, but I'm having a problem with this coin. The legend is missing a letter - it should read HENRICVS.D.G.FRANCOR.REX - but the A in FRANCOR is missing. And the design of the bust does not match anything in the books I have for coins with that obverse legend, even if the A was there. The reverse legend and design is fine - but again it does not match any coin in my books having the obverse design your coin has. And no doubt, as soon as a gentleman by the name of Ian drops by and sees this post - the conversation will get even more complicated Now the coin may be genuine - there are plenty of varieties for coins of this era that are not listed in the books. By the same token the coin may not be genuine at all - which would explain why I can't find it in my books. Perhaps Ian can find it in one of his. All that being said - the coin appears to have been polished and cleaned which would reduce the value if it is genuine.
Now let's get the Spanish cob. I don't know cobs as well as I do the later milled coinage, but I'll tell you what I can. The obverse of the coin is the side with the large cross. The pic needs to be turned 90 deg. to the left by the way for it to be oriented correctly. The coin, if genuine, is an 8 reales struck at the Potosi mint in Bolivia. As you can see the coin is dated 1687, and was issued under the authority of Charles II of Spain. Some of the letters in the legends, those that can still be seen anyway, are a bit odd. But that's not unknown for these coins. Now look at that circle design with the mountains & sun above them on the obverse. That symbol is a countermark from Peru. And it is that countermark, which more than anything else leads me to believe the coin is probably genuine. You see, in the years before this coin was struck, there was a scandal at the Potosi mint that rocked the Spanish Empire. The mint officials got caught producing coins of debased metal ( low silver content ). And it got to the point that Potosi coins were not accepted almost anywhere. But once the scandal was over with and the Potosi mint once again began producing coins with good silver - many other parts of the Empire, like Peru, still would not readily accept them. So they would assay the Potosi coins to verify the silver content. Then they would countermark the coins they approved. So that countermark makes this coin a rather neat collectible all by itself. It's too bad it was turned into jewelry - for just about any numismatic value was destroyed when this was done.
More Information Thank you for the wealth of information! I measured the French coin and it is 23mm in diameter and weighs about 5 gramms. I know that the French coin was purchased in Paris in the 1960's. Both the French and Spanish coins were turned into jewelry (my Grandmother purchased them in jewelry form). The french coin has a setting (I removed it from the setting to take the photos) that turns it into a pin. Although I have not personally cleaned the coins it is clear that they have been cleaned. Thanks again.
Then it would be a demi teston if genuine - but it does seem a bit heavy. It should weigh about 4 gm. Earlier dated coins were a bit heavier though and 5 gm would be about right.
It looks to me to be Ciani 1292, but with a blundered legend (in this case, missing out the letter `A'). Coins with blundered legends for that period aren't particularly scarce, but they aren't found every day of the week either. I would say that the coin looks to be genuine, but what is unusual is that the portrait is particularly well struck up...unusually so! It's another one of those coins i'd dearly like to see in the flesh. I agree that it looks as if it's been polished, but maybe it's coated with lacquer (another bad habit some european collectors had in attempting to preserve the surfaces of coins) ? What's it worth? Not an easy one to answer. I'd say between $50 - $80 and possibly more to a keen collector. The market for such pieces is not exactly `dynamic' (IMHO). Ian
