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Is this 1867 coin special? Why would it be used as a money clip?
Watchbelieve
Posts: 527 ✭✭✭
You would think if you choose a coin for jewelry, you would pick something special. Could this be a specimen for that coin. 
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Watchbelieve
Posts: 527 ✭✭✭
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Actually, the people who select coins for jewelry often know little or nothing about coins. They select them based on the designs and that's about all.
It is a Brazilian 500-reis coin; relatively common. No, nothing special, but a rather handsome coin that makes a rather handsome money clip.
Here is the NGC/Krause listing.
This piece has VF+ to XF details and as such would've been worth $11-17 if it had not been mounted in the money clip. Since it HAS been mounted in the clip, it is really only worth a modest premium over the silver melt value now. But I would leave it in the mounting because it's worth more that way than it would be as a piece of scrap silver or an ex-jewelry coin. (Is the clip silver, too?)
In a bit of irony, this coin is actually better looking than a lot of the NON-jewelry examples I've seen, which tend to have been harshly cleaned. You'd expect a jewelry piece like this to also have been scrubbed to death, but perhaps this one had some time to retone.
It's not worth a whole lot, but it's nice, anyway. And as a money clip, I'd guess it should be worth more than $25 to the right buyer. As coin-mounted money clips go, it's a classy piece, and likely pretty old. Who knows- on a good day, you MIGHT even get $35-50 for it on eBay.
PS- does the spring work?
Hmmm, maybe it's a firm open to close. Doesn't feel like any spring in there. Yes I believe the clip is stamped 900