Hello again, Well I'm hoping I've got it right with Charles I, and a half groat? It is tiny, but my trusty Laser Rapier had no problem snuffling it out of the hard baked u.k ground. It weighs 0.5 grams, and is 13mm in diameter. Nowt else much I can say, except it 'looks' to be quite clipped, hope the culprit wasn't caught, ouch! As always any further help with identification is much appreciated, and my thanks as always to everyone for their help. Don't know how I managed before finding this fantastic site!
I don't think it was clipped so much as just struck on an odd-shaped flan. Dinky little thing, right? It does look a bit like the c. 1641-43 Charles I penny I dug while metal detecting in Little Bromley, Essex. (I am an American, for whom that weeklong detecting trip to your side of the pond was the adventure of a lifetime. I envy your opportunity to do that all the time!) I thought mine was an Elizabethan penny when it first came up. Someone else did find an Elizabeth I penny on the other side of the field. I found a 1730 farthing as well. Other people had reportedly found multiple Celtic gold staters there in the past. Mine, like yours, has a weak portrait. I gather that is not so unusual.
Well, I'd say you probably have the King Charles right... but I don't think I agree with the denomination. A half-groat is 2 pence, and should have the denomination II to the right of the king's bust. Your's appears to be a penny, marked I. The size and weight are also more in line with a penny than a groat. See here: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces84461.html
Ahhh! I see, thanks for this. I've never found one before, saw a picture in a coin book and thought, "That's it!"
Thank you for this! How dumb of me not to see the I ! I am just as bad when it comes to identifying Elizabeth I coins! Alas I am not one of the gold coinage brigade. In all my years of detecting I've never found a one! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that when you get over to the u.k again you will also be the proud owner of a piece of gold I have to confess though that I am envious of your wild west ghost towns! And I do love the older 19th century houses there!
