Morning - I'm a newbie, but an interested one. Back in the 60's, my brother was a sports diver primarily off the Florida coast. In the late 60's early 70's, he gave me two coin fragments, a musket ball and a nail, that he retrieved from one of his dives. i am using time dates for reference. I recently had a jeweler place a bale on these fragments so that I could return them to my brother as a momento of his youth. However, the jeweler cautioned me - saying they contained lead! I've gone on plenty of websites trying to identify these coins and spoken to many how can not or are not familar. these coins show the typical "cob" designs - but the years of 1773 & 1730 are not reseachable. One person called these fragments "klippe". But -I doubt if they were square in their original form. Can anyone assist me with identiying these coins as authentic. I tried to attach photos?
Howdy Christopher - Welcome to the Forum !! What you have there are fakes, modern copies of the genuine coins. The lead gives it away. What they are supposed to be are cut pieces of a larger coin. This was a common practice back then as method to make change.
Thank you for the reply. Not to make arguement - but what if my jeweler misinterpreted his understanding. What if he did not say "lead". What are these coins? Your reply, as appreciated as it is, implies that someone copied authentic fragments, probably many, many of them, and drpped them at a wreck site for divers to find. Though, I believe this behavior of "salting" is done, it seems like alot of work, and expense. to make a copy of a fragment - why? Not for resale - certainly a customer would prefer a "copy" of a whole coin. Does an authentic coin as these actually exist? Can you offer a website that shows them or perhaps tell me what they are "thinking that they did not have lead" in them? How can they be tested? Other than my mention of "lead", is there any other aspect eg, dates, patina, shape, design ..etc that would render them as fakes? Again, thank you.
I doubt that anybody salted a site. It is far more likely that the previous owner, when told they were fakes, just threw then into the ocean. Only to be found later by your brother. Finding these things is really very common, it happens all the time. But then that is because they are sold in Fla. to the tourists by the truck load. And many times they are sold to them as genuine items. Then when they meet somebody who actually knows what the real coins look like and they tell them that they are fakes - they throw them into the sea. And there are a lot of people in Fla. who do know how to tell a fake from the real thing. Just from looking at them I can tell you they are fakes. The design is wrong, the lettering is wrong - everything about them is wrong. I know this because I spent over 30 years collecting this type of coin. Now by all means, give them back to your brother. The value of them to him as sentimental items would far exceed what they would be worth even if they were real.
When I was a little kid I was on a cruise ship snorkeling excursion and I saw a gold object about 20 feet down. I swam down and retrieved it and was excited beyond belief when I saw the familiar cross of those old spanish coin. Elation turned to grief when I turned it over and was the name of a dive boat company on the back. So yes, at times people do "salt" the reef.
