🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Mystery silver coin

[lisfisher]

Hi, dug in lake bed the other day, in about 6 inches of water. Silver, and a hair smaller than a U.S dime. It has letters but I cannot make them out. I was thinking maybe a spanish 1/2 but hard to tell.

 

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[grasshopper]

I think you're right, looks like one of the older half reales

 

[Mackaydon]

Yes, a 1/2R Mexican coin. But then comes the hard part of ID-ing the coin if the date is illegible. If part of the legend reads "FRD VI D G then it was minted during (and after!) the reign of Fernando VI (1746-1759). During his reign two varieties of this coin were minted. The first variety was minted between 1747 and 1758. The distinguishing feature is that both columns were topped with royal crowns. In the issue from 1757-1760, the left crown is imperial and the right crown is royal.

But, as the TV ads say......."But wait there's more !!" The same features are also shown on the 1/2R minted during the term of Carlos III (1759-1788). That variety is distinguished by the legend reading (in part) CAR III D G. The coin date range was 1760-1771. The left crown is imperial while the right coin is royal.

Better eyes than mine may be able to (1) see a date (on the VTRA side) or (2) see the difference or similarity of the crowns; or (3) can specify the coin shows part of FRD VI DG or CAR III D G.
Don in SoCal.

 

[UnderMiner]

Yep, a Spanish 1/2 Real, early-mid 18th century double globe design. This is also know informally as one bit, one bit bought a pint of grog. 16 bits in a Piece of Eight, one Piece of Eight was equivalent to a half Gold Escudo, 4 Pieces of Eight/Four half Escudos = 1 Doubloon (2 Escudos). That's basically a pirate age coin, so much fun learning the lingo of the currency. It's the currency that the US stock exchange was based on up until the year 2001. Stock prices were measured in 1/16ths up until then. Remember how I said your coin was worth 1/16 of a Piece of Eight, well guess what the US silver dollar was based off of - that's right the Spanish Piece of Eight - which was divisible by 16 bits - your coin.

 

[unclemac]

almost right there.... one bit is 1 real, not a half. In early America, “bit” was used for some Spanish and Mexican coins that circulated and were worth one-eighth of a peso, or about 12 and one-half cents. Hence, two bits would have equaled about 25 cents.

 

[TreaShore]

The crest on the reverse was a dead giveaway for me. Automatically knew it was a reale. When viewing the front it took me a second, and turning my head, to realize it was a "pillar dollar" obverse. Nice find.