I am looking for some help from someone with any knowledge of old coins. I stumbled upon an old coin collection in my great grandfather's attic after he passed away a few years ago. I have done a little research on some of the coins, and if I am looking right, these are some unbelievable finds. My problem is, I don't know if they are real or if they are reprints or something, because some of them seem a little too good to be true. I will list a few to give an example: 1652 Pine Tree Schilling 1783 Nova Constellation 1776 New Hampshire Half Penny 1776 Continental Dollar 1785 Bar Cent 1776 Massachusetts Pine Tree Cent 1652 Willow Tree Schilling 1786 Massachusetts Cent Leo The Lion 1786-1789 Massachusetts Cent Gemini The Twins Aries The Ram Libra The Balance Taurus The Bull Silver Dirhem of Baghdad Aquarius The Water Bearer Pisces The Fishes Dilepton of Simon Nasi Pirate Four Bits / Two Bits Brasher Doubloon Gold Doubloon of Philip V Siege Coin Money Tree Coin Denarius of Augustus Pirate Pillar Dollar Lepton of Pontius Pilate These may all be replicas, but I have no idea. If anyone can help, please feel free to contact me, or if you could refer me to someone, it would be great. Thanks, -coinboy95
The best way for anyone to be able to help you is for to post pics of the coins. That would be a start. Barring that - better descriptions listing obverse & reverse legends. Some of the coins you mention are of course well known. Some of the others based on the names you provide mean nothing. They could be silver rounds or imitations. But there is no way anyone can say they are genuine or not without seeing them. Even a picture does not permit authentication but as I said it is a start.
The Astrological medals wouldn't be worth very much unless they are made out of some precious metal like Silver or Gold,in which case they would be worth melt value. The early U.S. coins don't quite seem to fit in with the atrology coins. They would be very scarce to extremely rare and worth quite a bit of money. All of the listed coins and several not on the list have been heavily reproduced over the years. You don't mention any grades,but I'd say if these coins look like they are not badly worn,they are probably copies. Most early American Copper has been extremely worn and/or has enviornmental damage from being in the ground at one time. Uncirculated specimen's of these coins would be ultra rare. I'd recommend seeing a local coin dealer or coin club and asking for first hand opinion's. A general rule of thumb,if it sounds too good to be true,it usually is. Finding this many rare coins in high grade is indeed too good to be true. ~ Jim
From experience, most of the coins you mentioned are going to be modern reproductions. They are still quite interesting and make great conversation pieces.
