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what are they

biglry

biglry

Member
Hi all,
my name is Larry and I hunt exclusively on the 36,000 acre, 10 miles drivable Calif state beach park known as Pismo Beach (18 miles total). It has about 1 million visitors a year and has been open to the public for camping and ORV use for many years. I hunt with a Sov. GT and love it. I average $5 a day in clad and a lot of stuff from kid's hot wheels to cell phones, tools and some times jewelry to some real 'oddball' type stuff.

Now to my question. Can anyone identify the two coins or tokens I found or know anything about them? They were about 6" to 8" down, found on two different days at different locations on the beach about 50 yards from the shore in dry sand. The first two pic show the smaller of the two objects and is about the size of a US penny, it is non magnetic, not aluminum and has no numbers on either side that I can read, it was pretty covered up with crusted sand stuck on it and I thought it was a penny and paid no attention to it until I cleaned it up.

The second set of pic show the larger one which shined up like chrome, but is non magnetic and a lot heaver than aluminum and about the size of US silver dollar, it is very hard and won't scratch with a pin knife. I could not find any numbers on it.
They both look as if they were stamped out on a quality stamp mill as there is somewhat of an even seam around the edge of both of them, but the "quality stamp mill" is only a guess on my part.
I have found a lot of Tokens on the beach, but none of them resemble these and most of them are made from brass or copper

Anyone who might know what they are please post up as I'd like to learn more about them and if I need to keep them in my safe or my junk drawer? :biggrin:
Thanks
Larry
 
Look Spanish, but I cannot find anything like them on the web...I looked up French too...nothing...
 
Hi Larry,

I'm by no means an expert, but to me they look like reproductions of a British Elizabeth I Half Groat (twopence) and a Spanish (South American Mint) 4 reales.
Some of the detail just doesn't look right. For example, my Spink "Coins of England" Doesn't show any Elizabeth I silver coins with the "II" to the right of the bust. All have a rose.
If the Spanish is really as big as a silver dollar, and not a half dollar, then it should be an 8 reales - but yours seems to be marked a 4.

Don't know to what extent you cleaned them - but silver coins of that age certainly wouldn't come out of the beach without a ton of oxidation on them - another reason to believe they are repros (The Elizabeth would have been from the 16th century).

A negative test for silver would be confirmation - though there are silver repros as well.

Just my thoughts. Neat finds, regardless.

Best,
Dan
 
ANG FRA et HIB and Hibernia (England France and Ireland) D.G. translates as "grace of God", I think ,and is found on most British coins up till 1950s.

She was queen of both or thought to be.

She ruled 1560ish to 1605ish. So that is a very old coin especially on that coast.

Nice find. I know nothing about coins of that age but there are lots of sources online.

Here is a page I found That show very similar coins. One page I read mentions some very rare Elizabeth I coins.

http://www.treasurerealm.com/coinpapers/england/Ar_Elizabeth_I.html

HH

1859

PS: Before you toss it. It could be an early forgery or a late reproduction. Or something tossed in the sand to fool some detectorist.
I still think it is a neat find and if they are that early then there might be something else under the sand.
 
Larry.I live up the coast in Oregon.Awhile back i found several coins that date back to the 1600s.The coins were worn a lot but had virtually no corrosion on them.I also dug them at the beach.You might check shipwreck records from that era.I think they just new how to make things in those days(better materials).
 
Thanks for all the input guys. I now do believe they are both reproductions of the British Elizabeth I Half Groat (twopence) and a Spanish (South American Mint) 4 reales. They'll go in my collection as examples of reproductions.
 
Thanks dobbie,
I have it in my favorites
 
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