I am trying to find the value of a 1757 Spanish 1/2 escudo gold piece dug up in a potatoe garden in Eastern Newfounland, the coin is in great condition but it does have a couple of small dents.
A picture would help. it would depend on condition quite a bit. It can be valued anywhere between bullion value, which is somewhere around 40 bucks for the gold up toward 100 bucks or so, if the dents are small and not distracting. I would guess, if it was in a potatoe garden, its surface is probably a little worn... even with the dents, as such, I would suspect you could get about 70 bucks - or so I would imagine... Again, it would depend on how distracting the dents are. Good find!
Welcome to the forum bharnett. The version of your 1.69g .9170 gold coin minted at Seville (KM#374, S or SL mintmark), catalogs at $70 VG, $140 F, $275 VF and $400 XF in the 3rd Ed. Krause Standard Catalog of World Coins 18th Century. The Madrid version (KM#378, crowned M mintmark), is listed at only $50 VG, $70 F, $135 VF and $190 XF. There's no mintage specified. From the description and circumstances, I'm guessing yours is somewhere in the G-VG range, probably closer to the low end. With a .0498 AGW, the bullion value is about 22 bucks.
Thanks---pictures Thanks for the replies, here are the pics, I think the coin is in pretty good shape considering it's probably been buried for almost 250 years.
It's a Madrid coin, of course, in much better condition than I expected to see. From the reverse picture I would grade it VF details, net VG due to the very distracting scratch. The shape of the scratch leads me to believe it's a shovel mark. The obverse is a little tougher to grade because of the out-of-focus picture, but it very possibly also has VF detail. I would value it at $50-70 retail, $25-40 from a world coin dealer, or $5 from a typical American dealer who thinks world coins are not worth collecting.
