Please help me identify this? Smaller than a Canadian dime.

coinhunterbc

Found this little piece metal detecting on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. Someone at a coin shop said it may be 18th century, from India, but couldn't say for sure. It does not stick to a magnet, possible silver, or zinc alloy. I put it next to a Canadian dime. it weighs about 1 gram. Unfortunately it has suffered corrosion damage, only one side has a visible pattern. Any help is greatly appreciated. If only coins could talk, it would be so helpful!

emeraldATV

This might be the wrong thing to do, but try laying a cotton sheet of common letterhead paper on top and very carefully shade with the side of a pencil or pastel and see what comes up.
This might be the wrong way so be aware of that.

coinhunterbc

I will try that. Thanks

Namvet69

It'd be nice if you could get it scanned on an xrf for metal composition. Do you know a jeweler or pawn? Good luck. Peace Roy

coinhunterbc

Thanks Namvet69 (Roy), I will check into that, I still need to see if I can get an image as well tracing a crayon, pencil lead over it. Now what is interesting is I contacted a guy the other day with a coin, and token site, he sells old Hudson's Bay stuff, US coins. I kindly asked him if he could help at all on identification. He thought it struck his memory to be similar to the old Mexican and Central/Latin America Hacienda tokens. From the quick reading so far, it looks like ranchers would pay their labourers in those tokens for wages. Now what makes that interesting, if it is a hacienda token, it could have been brought here by the Spanish when they had occupation of the Pacific Northwest from about 1774 to 1795. The Spanish military unit that ended up being stationed at Nootka on the west coast of Vancouver Island, some of them had arrived in Mexico from bases in central america, then got transported from San Blas (Mexico) up to Vancouver Island to man fort San Miguel (and for a short time fort Fuca at what is today Neah Bay, Washington). I know from their expeditions in the PNW they traded various items with the native people like; beads, sheets of copper, coins, food (biscuits), etc.. Not to mention many other nations in the PNW trading for furs. I will update you all if I find out more.

thefinn

Canada never made dimes.

ajaan

@thefinn said:
Canada never made dimes.

And the US never made pennies.

thefinn

@ajaan said:

@thefinn said:
Canada never made dimes.

And the US never made pennies.

Or “nickels”.

YQQ

Canada DID make dimes since (10 cent coin) from 1858 to now
Canada DID make cents (pennies) from 1858 to 2012 I believe. then stopped but these are still valid!

coinhunterbc

I didn't have much luck trying to trace the coin with a pencil, but I did play around with a copy of the pic, and altered the colour, clarity, etc.. So on the corroded sided that was extremely hard to read, I can now make out what looks like a small number 1 upper left, and a large P or D to the right "1 P or 1 D." This may sound weird, but if you have a laptop or tablet move the screen slowly at various angles up and down, you can notice the markings more. I am still going to see if a jeweller can do a metal test on it.

coinhunterbc

I have also been reading about old trade tokens, where the token was good for one Pelt (Beaver Pelt).

sellitstore

I would also consider the possibility that this isn't a coin. But what is it, then?

coinhunterbc

Thanks sellitstore for the reply. I have considered it may not be a coin, I will upload a picture of a ring for sale on vatican site. It was used to make a mark, or seal. I also found a hacienda token that has a R symbol similar to the item I have in question, but different in the top design.

On top of all that, a new mystery has surfaced from my treasure hunt (metal detecting) today, another possible small coin, or token, part of it has been cut away. I will enclose a picture of it next to another dime. It also does not stick to a magnet. I can't make out any writing on it yet.

coinhunterbc

Here is another possible match. I found this group of Hudson's Bay Company trade buttons, the smallest one, does have some similar looks to the item I found, if you consider my find has also corroded a bit in a salt water environment. I will attach some pics, and an image i tried to do side by side. Unfortunately the only sample I can find online is a very small picture.