Spanish (?) coin found on Cape Cod

[edcamera]

I'm somewhat of a newbie to metal detecting. I borrowed my brothers Whites XLT on my recent vacation to Cape Cod this past week. While searching on the ocean side, I find this coin a few inches down in wet sand, where the waves are crashing into the beach. It weighs about 8 grams. Can anyone help me determine what it is, as well as the authenticity of it?

Thanks,
Ed

 

[Bobbie]

You may see the words COPY stamped on it. If you do not then it is real. People like to salt the beaches with fake reales so examine it carefully.

 

[Larry (The Palm Bay Pirate)]

If it's a real reale,
If not,
The Palm Bay Pirate

 

[Macaco]

To me it looks like it was cast and not stamped.

Could you post some close up images of it to show more detail?

 

[Macaco]

I didn't realize those pics would expand.

It's a counterfeit. The black patina is artificial and the coin itself is pretty clearly cast and not stamped.

The bare metal is the wrong color too.

 

[therick]

If it was clean as the pic, then definitely a fake. Heavily encrusted by being in the ocean for 300 years, maybe genuine.

therick

 

[Bob @ Sebastian]

This is a Early Spanish Cob Coin, circa 1600, minted at the Potosi mint in Peru (thus the "P" mint mark on the obverse side) The "O" (under the "P") designates the assayer.
Most replicas will have that indicated some where on the coin.
DO NOT CLEAN THIS COIN UNTIL YOU VERIFY IT"S AUTHENTICITY.
The weight seem puzzling as a 2 reale is about 6 grams, 4 reale about 13.7 grams and a 8 reale about 27 grams.

Bob

 

[edcamera]

I used a small postage scale to measure the weight of the coin. It came up
8 grams twice and 6 grams twice. Other posts to the thread say it does not look like it was pressed and the patina looks fake, what is your take on that? How should I go about checking it out for sure? Thanks, -Ed

 

[edcamera]

It looked just like that, I did not clean it... -Ed

 

[Erik]

This one was gilded oddly enough - so I originally thought it might have fallen off a piece of jewelery. I'm not sure why people would salt the beaches with these as someone said here, but I'm sure they sell fakes near touristy places as souveniers.

 

[bdahunter]

Hey, Erik!
You can't figure people and their motives. I heard a story recently about a marine biologist who was staying at the hotel next door to me, Cambridge Beaches. He was down on his honeymoon and thinking about his PHD thesis topic when he came across a shell on the beach that is native to Hawaii. WOW! The perfect thesis topic, a Pacific species found on the beach in Bermuda. He was all excited about it and discussing the topic over lunch with his new bride when the waiter interjected and told him that the shell he found is one of many. 'That's Great!' thought the marine biologist perfect back up for my thesis. Then the waiter dropped the other shoe.
Since Hurricane Fabian rolled through Bermuda several years ago, the shells have all been buried by millions of tons of sand that was shifted around; so the hotel has the groundskeeper sprinkle imported shells onto the beach so the tourists have something to find. The same thing applies to tourist treasure hunts for the kiddies on the beach. I guess the wee gaffers don't find them all.

Cheers,

BDA