Hand made 179X George Washington prototype coin

jmm2562

I found this coin in a loose box of very old foreign coins. Can this hand made coin of George Washington and bald eagle be authenticated in some way? It might be someone's hobby or it might be something of significance. Has anyone come across anything similar? Regardless, very interesting piece!

Walkerguy21D

Looks like it’s cast and made of base/pot metal.
Other than that I don’t know what it was copied from.

IkesT

Very crude copy of a 1792 cent. No significance, no value, no need for authentication.

A genuine example:

jmm2562

Thanks for the excellent response. I was not aware of this coin's existence. Very nice!

The example I have is very heavy and may be silver. I will have to test it.

Oh... how do we know the crude edition did not come first?

IkesT

@jmm2562 said:
The example I have is very heavy and may be silver. I will have to test it.

Lead or pot metal; it doesn't really matter. If you want to test it, knock yourself out, but there's no numismatic reason for doing so.

Oh... how do we know the crude edition did not come first?

Because it looks like garbage, for one thing.

pcgs69

Was it some kind of two piece button? It's definitely "puffy" and I doubt meant to be a coin in any way due to it being hollow.

Walkerguy21D

@pcgs69 said:
Was it some kind of two piece button? It's definitely "puffy" and I doubt meant to be a coin in any way due to it being hollow.

My guess is that it was a poorly made prototype made by the counterfeiter as he was honing his skills. Left an air pocket or contaminant on the surfaces before adhering them, and it got worse over time. But pure speculation on my part. A large two sided button could be just as rational an explanation.

jmlanzaf

@pcgs69 said:
Was it some kind of two piece button? It's definitely "puffy" and I doubt meant to be a coin in any way due to it being hollow.

Could be button or a gaming piece. There are so many such pieces that I don't think there had ever been a complete accounting.

If it is possible to fool people into thinking these are pattern coins, some enterprising unethical seller is going to get rich.

To the OP, about the worst thing you can do is get into the habit of thinking anything new to you must be rare or valuable. It will cause you to overvalue what are ALMOST ALWAYS common pieces. It's just statistics.

George Washington has four 250 years been THE iconic American figure. His likeness has been used into modern times on all kinds of "Washingtonia".