Half of a Half = A Quarter, Right?

[StevePa]

Hello everyone,

My brother recently got hooked on metal detecting and bought himself a bounty hunter for Christmas. He has been practicing in his back yard, which is a 1800s home and found some clad already.

Today he found half of a coin which looks pretty old and warn. I told him to send me a picture to help identify and I am completely baffled.






I can make out a date that looks like 187? and the basic design looks like a seated liberty style. You can make out the eagle looking left and some lettering above the eagle head. My brother attempted to measure diameter, which appears to be around 30mm, which is approximately the half dollar coin size.

The biggest mystery for me is that the seated liberty style is only accurate to silver coins, which this coin (or part of a coin) looks more like a copper coin.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

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[kuger]

Yep,I am thinking Seated Quarter ........might be countfeit?Could be a half I guess

 

[StevePa]

Have you ever seen a silver coin that looked this worn and dull. I guess I can test it with chemicals.

 

[cti4sw]

Any way you could get clearer images? Not just of the detail, but of the breakage too.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Steve - I also believe it may be a counterfeit. The way its broken makes it appear to be brittle and not silver. Almost all early counterfeits I've dug have been some kind of brittle pot metal or pewter. How does it read on your F75? That might eliminate it as being silver. Cool find!

 

[kuger]

Yea,its tough to see for sure without better pics,and as said it might be counterfeit...which to me is cooler than the real deal

 

[StevePa]

Sorry the pictures are so bad. As I said, my brother found this today and I have not seen it in person yet or had a chance to run it under the detector. Can counterfeit coins made of pewter or whatever look like this? I agree it does not appear to be silver and I am not aware of any other non silver coin that has seated liberty style.

Either way, it is a unique find. Half of a half.

 

[Steve in PA]

Steve - I also believe it may be a counterfeit. The way its broken makes it appear to be brittle and not silver. Almost all early counterfeits I've dug have been some kind of brittle pot metal or pewter. How does it read on your F75? That might eliminate it as being silver. Cool find!

Bill, you are thinking of the wrong Steve. Note this Steve uses a Whites 6000 di pro.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Bill, you are thinking of the wrong Steve. Note this Steve uses a Whites 6000 di pro.

Sorry about that!