Help identifying Gold Coin/Token???
Windycity
Posts: 3,593 ✭✭✭✭✭
Any help identifying this would be appreciated. Gold, about the size of a Nickel and weighs 7.5 grams. Might be nothing more than stamped gold bullion but not certain. Any recognize this or can anyone direct me the right way to research it?
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Comments
Looks like a weight to be used with a balance scale.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Agree. It looks like an apothecary weight.
--Severian the Lame
But it's marked as 7 gr but weighs 7.5 gr
I guess it depends on what it is made of.
Most likely a copy of a rare Irish coin.
Ed. S.
(EJS)
Probably an apothecaries weight, as already said. The "gr" probably means "grains" not grams. I do not known what the earlier letters are trying to represent. Somebody better at math will have to do a conversion.
I don't see any domestic violence or potato mash on either side of the coin.
A key would be the interpretation of the 4:9 and marks at the top...as far as the 7: gr...standard abbreviations are g=gram and gr=grain.... however, your stated weight of 7.5 grams belies this interpretation.... Have you had it confirmed as gold? Pure or alloy? That may be the answer to the numbers/symbols...Cheers, RickO
7 grains = .45 grams
It is a rare Irish pistole coin that resembles an apothecaries weight.
Depends on where the Token came from:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apothecaries'_system
This is a complicated subject, varies by locality, and with the passage of time some things have been obscured.
We also haven't figured out the first abbreviation.
NB: There MUST be a new version of Spellchecker, it is much more aggressive in changing right to wrong than the old version.
Bill, see above.
These coins are rare and have been counterfeited. I saw my first counterfeit in 1973. I agree with Ed. This one smells like rotten fish!
Should have known something was up, this thing appearing on St. Paddy's Day.
Supposedly only two or three originals in private hands, the rest in museums.
I just looked on the Internet. There are several images and one of these is going to auction sometime if it has not already.
Modern copy of this Irish piece:
https://oldcurrencyexchange.com/2016/04/11/irish-coin-daily-ormonde-double-pistole-1646/
This coin came from a private collection I purchased yesterday. Collection had many tokens and medal (almost all silver) and included an 1876 Official Congressional Centennial Silver medal. My point being I have no idea about authenticity but it was part of a large collection in private hands for 30+ years.
Are those initials to the W/SW of the 4? Pareidolia maybe?
Or remnants of the coin rolled out or some such?
Internet articles say the first set of letters is abbreviation for "penny-weight" (often abbreviated "dwt"). There are some good internet articles out there.
Comparing this to the The Ormonde Pistole coin found in a google search, this certainly looks like a reproduction. The lines on the numbers appear to be tooling lines in the original die. Very different than the Ormonde piece. Here is link to Ormonde piece -[](https://oldcurrencyexchange.com/2015/08/05/obrien-rare-coin-review-the-ormonde-gold-pistole-of-1646/