A friend of mine found this coin with a metal detector digging in the desert in Imperial county California. He said the location was close to the Sultan Sea, also Niland is a small town nearby. The dig was also about 20 miles north of the Mexico/US border. We have no clue what it is. We were wondering if it might be old Inca or Mayan coinage. We are great full for any leads. Thank you
It's a modern tourist fake of an 18th century Spanish coin. These are sold at gift shops all over the place
Believe it or not, the Salton Sea in the '50s-60s' was an excellent fishing and tourist area. Many movie stars from Palms Springs would come there to water ski and fish. That was when agriculture water was cheap enough to just allow the unabsorbed water to drain there, and Mexicali was small enough that its raw waste didn't overflow the border's New River. Water is now bought, sold , traded like oil to the coastal areas, much due to the Hunt bros. of Silver fame, so there is little run off, and it is becoming a dust bowl.I have photos someplace of the small trading posts, and dining cafes from the era, so I agree with Red_spork, a rather crude fake. Jim
There were no pre-colombian coinage. The first coins in America were struck in Mexico from 1535, by the Spanish conquistadors.
