i have looked for years and cannot figure what this coin is . . .

can't figure out what the coin is . . . . i've searched too!

 

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Can not tell from that picture but looks like European Old Silver. Hope that helps.

 

Pics are not going to help much but from pic 4 the shield in the center is normally used on silver reales and silver cobb reales but the obverse doesn't match any I've seen. So the first things to do is check to make sure it's silver. Then post some better pictures. The details in the coin will tell you the country who was striking them, what "mint" in the new world it came from for cobb coins and european mint for actual Reale coins. Stuff like that. You could also have a silver or non silver copy of a cobb coin. It's a start for you if you haven't researched spanish and portugese money.

 

Check the edges, if theres a small line going around it, its a modern cast copy.

 

Looks like Spain, Ferdinand and Isabel.
We'll need much better pictures to attempt to authenticate, but there's more fakes than real ones out there.

http://www.coinquest.com/cgi-bin/cq/coins?main_coin=4561&main_ct_id=42