My grandmother left behind three old coins. They are 1.5, 2.5 and 3 cm. in diameter. (Actually, I’m not even sure that the smallest piece is a coin.) At this time, I am preparing to pass these along with some other family items to my niece and nephew. In the notes I will be attaching, I would like if possible to identify these pieces, so my niece and nephew know what they are getting. Any assistance in that regard would be most appreciated. I don’t know what kind of coins these are or if indeed they are even real coins, so I do not know whether this or another subforum would be more appropriate for posting this query. My apologies if I have posted incorrectly. I would gladly repost, in the recommended area. Thank you!
Thank you, @longshot! Do I need to figure out how to remove the post here, before posting in the world coins section?
@DBinSV - welcome! #1 I am essentially clueless about, though it's obviously old. And I'd say it is indeed a coin. I get a vague "central Asia" vibe (India, Afghanistan, etc- India is my hunch). That's a bit of a cop-out and is my go-to diagnosis for lots of "irregularly shaped coins with squiggles on 'em", but that vague hunch is right more often than not. It looks silver. My (mostly-uneducated) guess is India or somewhere in that part of the world. Could be anywhere on the timeline from medieval to 19th century, for all I know, but I'd be surprised if it was less than 150-200 years old. Sorry, that's all I've got on that one. Perhaps someone with more experience in Eastern or Asian coins can help. Repost it on the World Coins or maybe even the Ancients forum. It could well be ancient (though I suspect more medieval to early modern). Some of our sharpest scholarly types hang out on the Ancients forum, so no harm in trying it there. In my newly-promoted moderator role, I had the power to move this thread to the World Coins forum, but chose not to, since I've still got my Moderator training wheels on, and besides, I think I can help with the other two coins... #2 is likely a Polish silver 6-groschen piece of Johann Casimir, dated 1662-AT. The type is KM#91 (or a similar variant). I personally would grade it around Fine (F12) by American standards. The NGC (Krause-Mishler) priceguide lists it at $17 in VG8 but skips the Fine (F12) grade, jumping to $70 in VF20. I think the VG8 price is far more realistic. By extrapolating from the catalog prices, you could hypothetically call this a $20-25-ish coin. There does appear to be some greenish deposits, but I don't think that's unusual for silver coins (perhaps debased silver) from this region and era. One sometimes sees that kind of oxidation/encrustation on coins recovered from old northern European buried hoards. I'd leave it on there, as it isn't likely to affect the value much. #3 appears to be a Polish silver Ort of the KM#37 type. You can see the first two "16" digits of the date to the left of the shield. It is difficult in the picture to determine what the final two digits in the date are (to the right of the shield). I have marked that area with an arrow in the image below, and rotated the image, since you had the reverses of both Polish coins upside-down. I think the last part of that date says "22", so if so, it would be a 1622 ort. A somewhat weak/flat strike in the lettering is not that unusual on these, so the mushy date numerals are not surprising. If indeed a 1622, it lists for $25 in VG8 and $80 in VF20. I think this particular example does have VF details, so based on catalog, it's hypothetically an $80 coin, but I'd be much more conservative on the "real world" value estimate. As @longshot indicated, the king shown on the obverse of this piece is Sigismund III. (And his "quarter Thaler" assessment is also correct, since 1 Ort = 1/4 Thaler.)
Side note, for comparison: Here is a 1621 Polish ort (1/4 thaler) that I used to have on my old trademark "Holey Coin Vest" (seen in my avatar).
PS- Y'know, come to think of it, there is some chance that Coin #1 might not be Eastern at all. Those "squiggles" could in fact be part of a coat of arms or some other pictorial elements. I think I see some stars there, some stuff that might be letters, and the "crosshatch" markings are unusual. So I really can't say. Maybe India, or maybe some kind of crude European thing that didn't get all of its design struck on the flan. Call me clueless on that one, but intrigued. I think you should try posting it on the Ancients forum, even though we don't know at this point whether it's a true ancient or not.
Neat, historical, old coins, even if they don't have a lot of $ value. Nice to keep them in the family.
