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Wonder what the story of this coin is...

Picked-up my first Cuzco (Peru) portrait 8 Reales. I didn't pay much attention to the scratches, until I looked at it under magnification. Looks like it might be a crude love token or perhaps a dog tag? However, not much wear to be a dog tag... There's heavy toning on the coin, but I've inverted the colors and juiced the images a little to bring-out the "scratches". What do you think? The scratched date above the one on the coin appears to be 183(1 or 7?). "JoKimber..." in front of Ferdinand and what looks like "Easton"? behind the bust.

Am I seeing things?

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Also, I don't think I've posted any information on the mint before, so here goes:

Cuzco, the capital city of the Inca Empire was incorporated into the Spanish territories by Francisco Pizarro. However, the Mints of Potosi and Lima were more important than the Mint of Cuzco. At the end of the Seventeenth Century, gold coinage was abundant, but only in 1824 Eight Reales pieces were issued. Viceroy Laserna was responsible for this coinage, aided by General Canterae, whose troops brought mint machinery from Lima. By the time King Ferdinand VII legalized the Cuzco Mint in 1825, ex-post-facto, the territory was already independent.

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    lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,218 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Wonder what the story of this coin is... >>

    Alas, the story is that my company's server gods do not like employees looking at Photobucket images for some reason, so it is four red X'es to me at the moment. image

    Explore collections of lordmarcovan on CollecOnline, management, safe-keeping, sharing and valuation solution for art piece and collectibles.
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    spoonspoon Posts: 2,798 ✭✭✭
    Looks like heckuva story there...

    Based on the name and "Easton" you've probably definitely got something that circulated in the US. There are towns called Easton in just about every northeastern US state.

    Problem is, just like banknotes with grafitti, I doubt it'll bring much premium unless an alert and interested collector notices it.

    Whatever it is, that is very cool!

    image
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    TwoKopeikiTwoKopeiki Posts: 9,540 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>Wonder what the story of this coin is... >>

    Alas, the story is that my company's server gods do not like employees looking at Photobucket images for some reason, so it is four red X'es to me at the moment. image >>



    LordM, that's a shame, because you would definitely appreciate it's "holeyness" image

    Spoon, it's the story I'm after, not the premium image
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    lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,218 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm home now, so I can see it. And I'm glad I could. I consider graffiti a bonus on an-already holed piece, sometimes. Graffiti is "good scratches". And that certainly appears to say "1831" in the scratched-in date.

    Congratulations, you have yourself a holey that's high on the coolness factor; one that ol' LordM would be proud to wear on the Holey Coin Vest. And believe me, by this time not just any holey is "vest worthy" anymore.

    (Not that I'm angling for your piece, by any means- I got a nice one a while back, myself, as I recall, so I have Ferdinand's 8-reales covered.)

    image

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    HyperionHyperion Posts: 7,438 ✭✭✭
    all, I can say is NEAT! there's a story behind there... someplace....
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    lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,218 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Makes me wanna get around to the project of scanning all my Holey Coin Vest and Holey Gold Hat coins- a project that I've put off for at least five or six years. Nobody on these forums has ever seen closeup pics of the vest or the hat, since there aren't any. Nor, for that matter, has anyone ever seen the back of the vest, with its holey US large cent date set. It's sort of like the dark side of the moon.

    Only those privileged to have seen it at shows in person know...














    ...what a complete geekazoid looks like in his "finery". image



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    DentuckDentuck Posts: 3,812 ✭✭✭
    Scratched by Jo Kimball of Easton in 1831.

    Kimball was a haberdasher with too much haber and not enough dash. Went out of business in 1830 and decided to get rich by scratching silver off circulating Spanish colonial coins. By December 1877 he had enough silver to fill an aspirin bottle. He died of a headache in January 1878.

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    TwoKopeikiTwoKopeiki Posts: 9,540 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Scratched by Jo Kimball of Easton in 1831.

    Kimball was a haberdasher with too much haber and not enough dash. Went out of business in 1830 and decided to get rich by scratching silver off circulating Spanish colonial coins. By December 1877 he had enough silver to fill an aspirin bottle. He died of a headache in January 1878. >>



    imageimageimage
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    MeijiMeiji Posts: 170 ✭✭


    << <i>Scratched by Jo Kimball of Easton in 1831.

    Kimball was a haberdasher with too much haber and not enough dash. Went out of business in 1830 and decided to get rich by scratching silver off circulating Spanish colonial coins. By December 1877 he had enough silver to fill an aspirin bottle. He died of a headache in January 1878.
    >>



    LOL image

    I like the coin even with the scratch on it. I still haven't gotten one for my collection yet, but I just don't see many up for sale.
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