Odd looking 5 Peseta

bronco2078

Paid $10 for this odd looking peseta the other day. On the reverse it looks like its missing a layer on half of the surface and its pitted and thinner there viewed on edge. The pitting seems to have been present before it was struck.


There is a depression at the top of the reverse that almost looks like a chopmark. It's underweight at 23 grams but I think the thinness would account for that. Where its thinner the edge is smooth I can't get a clear picture of that.

ormandh

It looks like it was cleaned with acid. But, that is only a guess.

-Dan

Sapyx

My guess would be fire damage.

Or here's another possibility: someone glued or soldered it to a floor. That may also explain the huge gouges carved into the reverse, in the undamaged half of the coin, if someone was trying to prise it off.

bronco2078

I don't think its fire damage , I had a pair of pesetas that were in a house fire , the fire warped the coins but it also hardened them on the surface and actually changed the way they sounded when you smacked them together.


I feel like the planchet was thin on one side before the coin was struck. You can see on the obverse a faint line stretching from the last I in XIII to just below the S in DIOS . There is also a depressed area where the date and the word ALFONSO is that ends on the top of the X in XII.

I doubt a coin would leave a mint in that condition today , but in 1891 Spain maybe it would ?