Colonial Coin but that’s all I know

[powrsurg]

Hi everyone, anyone know what this is? It was dug on Long Island, New York.

 

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[Noah_D]

Wow! Awesome find. I think those are fleurs de lis in the center in the second pic so possibly French? I'm looking but haven't found a match yet.

 

[eman1000]

The top looks like a ship or anchor but I'm leaning towards ship - If its colonial then its not one I have seen before. I'm thinking it may be older possibly

Going down the rabbit hole as well and haven't found anything yet.

 

[powrsurg]

Hi Guys, thanks for your feedback. I was not the one who found it. It was given to me yesterday as a gift and I feel like it might be something more than the person that gave it to me thinks it is. I commented that I have yet to find a coin from the 1600's and he says here you go. This is from the 1600's. LOL. Clearly hes a really good guy. As I look at the coin however I'm thinking that its older than 1600's. I found a coin from the 1500's in my backyard and it didn't have a date on it. This one also seems to not have a date on it. I think most European countries were dating their coins by the 1600's. The guy who gave it to me says its German. I found a Hungarian coin that looked similar to the bottom photo but its flip side was completely different.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Powrsurg, here are your images with some reprocessing done
in an effort to enhance the lettering; also tried black and white;
not sure if I made any improvement, but hopefully someone can
identify it..

 

[Red-Coat]

Cool find.

That seems to be a “Nuremberg Ship Penny”, from early 16th Century Germany.



Many different types exist in a variety of base metals, as per the ‘Numista’ entry here:

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces34228.html

It’s not a coin and has no real relationship to a penny. Strictly speaking, it’s not a token either, but a ‘jetton’ (jeton). These were produced as counters to be used on a chequered board, where they would be moved around in rows and columns to make financial calculations. Similar to the way beads are moved on an abacus, but the configuration of the board could reflect the way your currency was structured in divisional units. Nuremberg in Germany was a major producer of these, but they were widely sold to other countries.

It’s from this type of accounting that we derive our modern term ‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’, harking back to that chequered board of olden times.

 

[powrsurg]

Excellent ID Red-Coat. Thank you very much!

 

[powrsurg]

Red-Coat,
Any idea why its holed? Even though it wasn't intended to be used as a coin, it is possible it was still used as one in the early American colonies?

 

[Red-Coat]

Red-Coat,
Any idea why its holed? Even though it wasn't intended to be used as a coin, it is possible it was still used as one in the early American colonies?

I guess that's something we'll never know, but I would think it was probably holed at a somewhat later time and worn by someone as a medallion or for other adornment purposes... likely someone who didn't know exactly what it was. That's a rather common thing for 'exotic-looking' coins, tokens and jetons.

 

[Raider19962]

Cool find.

That seems to be a “Nuremberg Ship Penny”, from early 16th Century Germany.

View attachment 1847967

Many different types exist in a variety of base metals, as per the ‘Numista’ entry here:

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces34228.html

It’s not a coin and has no real relationship to a penny. Strictly speaking, it’s not a token either, but a ‘jetton’ (jeton). These were produced as counters to be used on a chequered board, where they would be moved around in rows and columns to make financial calculations. Similar to the way beads are moved on an abacus, but the configuration of the board could reflect the way your currency was structured in divisional units. Nuremberg in Germany was a major producer of these, but they were widely sold to other countries.

It’s from this type of accounting that we derive our modern term ‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’, harking back to that chequered board of olden times.

This appears to be a variation of the jeton you mentioned, but you can see a difference in the squarish bit that looks like an "8" to the right of the mizzen mast (on the right), and it appears to be a different metal. Still in the neighborhood of 1490-1550. Great find, or rather, acquisition!

 

[powrsurg]

The version I have I think is Bronze.

 

[Red-Coat]

This appears to be a variation of the jeton you mentioned, but you can see a difference in the squarish bit that looks like an "8" to the right of the mizzen mast (on the right), and it appears to be a different metal.

As I said... "many different types exist in a variety of base metals". They all have that same basic ship design though, loosely copied from the gold noble of 14th Century England and then widely imitated on several other European coinages.

 

[Noah_D]

Cool find.

That seems to be a “Nuremberg Ship Penny”, from early 16th Century Germany.

View attachment 1847967

Many different types exist in a variety of base metals, as per the ‘Numista’ entry here:

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces34228.html

It’s not a coin and has no real relationship to a penny. Strictly speaking, it’s not a token either, but a ‘jetton’ (jeton). These were produced as counters to be used on a chequered board, where they would be moved around in rows and columns to make financial calculations. Similar to the way beads are moved on an abacus, but the configuration of the board could reflect the way your currency was structured in divisional units. Nuremberg in Germany was a major producer of these, but they were widely sold to other countries.

It’s from this type of accounting that we derive our modern term ‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’, harking back to that chequered board of olden times.

Great ID Red-Coat! I guess my hunch about it being French was a little off.

 

[Mackaydon]

As Red-Coat said, here's the coin they were mimicing:

Don..

 

[eman1000]

So glad Red-Coat found this! It was driving me nuts today - I was actually just looking at ship tokens and checked back and found it was ID correctly. Very cool though!

 

[CRUSADER]

Nice Jetton, I think I've found this type over here before.