Very Strange Item

This is one of the weirdest things I've run across in my dad's collection. From my research, I assume it is an 1876 France, 5 Franc silver coin.
However, there are two obverse coins, apparently riveted to some kind of housing with a lever on top, and when you open the lever, it is hollow inside. Also, the coins have been shaved thin, so there is no reverse on either of them. When I shine a light inside, the sides are just flat surfaces.
What in the world could this be ? I was thinking perhaps a device to hide valuables ? But it is so thick it couldn't pass for a coin. Any thoughts ???

 

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Drug stash

 

snuff box, pill box, opium box, etc. - pretty common in the 19th century

 

Thanks... I hadn't thought of that !

 

How cool - Thanks ! Any idea if they have any value ?

 

Snuff/ pill box.

 

Very interesting. At first, my thought was to hide messages, but the snuff or pill container makes more sense. Please do some more research and post your results.

 

What is printed on the side of the lever that opens up?

 

they're made from many different coins - $25-$50 on eBay - search for 'coin snuff box'

 

Yes, I just searched Google for 19th Century Pill/Snuff coin boxes - it's definitely a thing !

 

More sophisticated hollow coins have been used for espionage activities throughout history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Nickel_Case

On June 22, 1953, a newspaper boy (fourteen-year-old Jimmy Bozart[1]), collecting for the Brooklyn Eagle, at an apartment building at 3403 Foster Avenue in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, was paid with a nickel (U.S. five-cent piece) that felt too light to him. When he dropped it on the ground, it popped open, revealing that it contained microfilm. The microfilm contained a series of numbers. He told the daughter of a New York City Police Department officer, and that officer told a detective who in two days told an FBI agent about the strange nickel.[2]

 

Nothing on the outside or the inside of the lever.

 

Nice photos! ~ Chris

 

It would be cool if it was used to hide microfilm during the Cold War, or better yet, to send secret messages from the French Underground to the Allies during WWII.

 

There seems to be some script located here.

 

Good eye.

Also, I concur with snuff box. That's what I immediately thought of.

 

Yes, there is definitely an engraved script. I'll need to get a shot with a better camera. Too small for my iPhone to show clearly. I do see the word France, but there is more after it.

 

I think I see ‘Eloi’ in Gothic lettering.

 

I'm less convinced. You can't dip your fingers into it to take a pinch, and it looks a little loose-fitting around the lid.

I think it's a matchbox.

 

It’s a knife. Google Eloi Pernet coin knife.