Found this in a coin shop "junk" bin the other day and have come up blank on an ID so far. It doesn't help that the coin is triple struck (although that is what caught my eye originally). Obverse shows the tripling clearly: the 1 from "1/2 Real" appears clearly 3 times. The reverse has more text so it's more of an indecipherable mess. 13 x 5-sided stars around a single 8-sided star? And I can only make out "Paise" or "Paris"?
I found a few listings for similar legends on Mexican hacienda tokens (c1880). Two, without pictures. Anyone have the Rulau reference book handy? Rulau #CAM 21 was mentioned on two different pages as being a copper or bronze 18mm 1/2 Real design.
Google https://www.scribd.com/document/300631374/Hacienda-tokens-of-Mexico-by-O-P-Eklund-and-Sydney-P-Noe
I guess I'll keep bumping this every 2 weeks or so. Hopefully find someone who can help me ID this. Can anyone else tell if there's doubling, tripling, or quadrupling? And what would cause that with rotation like this?
I don't really know what were looking at here, GeorgeM. Some type of good-for token I'd think and not US. Could be a hacienda token but I don't have Rulau's reference for them. Bruce
If you don't mind, GeorgeM, I'd like to copy your pictures and show them to a few really good token people I know. They might be able to help. Bruce
Here's what I found out, George. I contacted two men knowledgeable in foreign tokens and they both agreed that it's a Mexican Hacienda Token. Apparently, there's a man in Colombia who has done extensive research on these pieces and has written a few booklets about them. His name is Ignacio Henau. Unfortunately, they couldn't recall the titles of them so you might want to Google the name and see what comes up. Furthermore, the man in France I spoke to said the only text he could make out was "ARGA' on the reverse. He feels the entire word is either "Nargavan" or more likely "Vargas." I assume these are names of Haciendas in Mexico. To check these out look here http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan69119 He feels that the denomination side is double struck, but the other side is overstruck on something (these were my thoughts as well). I have a feeling I'll be hearing from them again, so I'll let you know if they come up with anything else. Good luck! Bruce
Thank you! Have I mentioned that this board has some of the most amazing people and connections we could *ever* imagine??