Can anyone help me identify this coin i found in my garden. It is silver, about the size of a dollar, and dated 1833 as you can see in the photos half of it is missing, Any help would be much appreciated.
It looks like a busted up Mexician Silver dollar from Zacatecas or Mexico City. How did it get like that?
I would venture a guess that it was decimated by a lawn mower. spaceface 0ne, try looking for the other half.
I looked all day for the other half with my metal detector and had no luck. My guess was that it fell out of someones pocket and landed into a mill of some sort. I am curious of how it got in my garden and how long it has been there.
awesome link thanks ikandiggit that does appear to be my coin, and duke thanks for the info. when i find the other half i will be sure to post.
Mexico 8 Reales 90.3% Silver, The 8R was considered a dollar coin of the time, same as a Crown from Great Britain... the saying a piece of eight derives from the 8R coin.
Back then it was common to cut them into 2-4-6-8 pieces to make change, remember that much silver was a hell of a lot of money.
Probably. But since that was more money than someone was likely to lose (1/2 of an 8 reale) they likely looked very hard for it. OR they had their bankroll buried deeper and placed a small amount on top so if it was found, whoever found it would quit digging. I think I might dig a deeper hole and look around a bit ? ?
i thought that it might have been cut to make change but by the way it looks i would say it was destroyed by a machine of some sort. i have dug around quite a bit, my garden is in a portion of a field that has been plowed for several years so there is no telling where the rest of it is. conder what makes you think its a counterfeit i am certain that it is silver and it appears to be authentic to me.
No luck on the other half of the coin today but i did find a large cent dated 1847 and an interesting button.
That is pretty cool that you found the half 8R (one of my fav. coins), and the cent! The button is neat too!
