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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 15724, member: 112&quot;]While we all collect coins and are familiar with their history - we often forget what the rest of history was like for the time a given coin was struck. </p><p><br /></p><p>The subject coin of this post for example - at the time, and for a great many years afterwards, nails were not round. They were square &amp; rectangular. This was due to the method of manufacture as nails were &quot;cut&quot; from a bar of steel. The tips of the nails were not sharp either, they were blunt and flat. The nails were rather large to prevent bending and each nail was tapered from one end to the other. At the small end, even a small nail would be approx 1/8 of an inch across and 1/8 of an inch thick. And it would have been a very simple matter to drive one through a coin - it happened often. As to why the metal on the out-going side of the hole is so flat and why the coin is not bent - the likely explanation is simple as well. The coin was struck by a hammer to flatten it after the hole was made. This also happened often when a coin was made into a necklace in those days.</p><p><br /></p><p>Driving nails through coins was so common it is even mentioned in literature of the day. &quot;Moby Dick&quot; may be the best known example. I refer to the section where Ahab takes a &quot;Spanish gold ounce&quot; and nails it to the mast of the ship with the coin being the reward for the first seaman to sight the white whale. </p><p><br /></p><p>It was actually commonplace for a ship&#039;s captain to nail a coin to the mast as a reward back in those days. In fact - this very coin may have easily undegone such an event. Or it could be somebody just wanted to make a necklace of it&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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