What the heck is this? (pics added)

0john0 · March 26, 2004 12:14AM

mystery coin

Besides being very worn, what is it. It's listed as Irish, but I sure do not recognise it.
It looks like a fake. Anyone know if it is real. I am trying to find info on it now.
-john

Philip · March 26, 2004 12:18AM

I don't know, but the script looks Greek. Then, what supposedly is a harp is actually a lira.

Of course, I may be totally amiss

elverno · March 26, 2004 12:43AM

Is it an evasion piece? Maybe farthing or condor101 can shed some light on this one... Interesting though as it looks like a worn George II or III piece at a glance.

Donovan · March 26, 2004 1:39AM

Looks like an evasion copper to me for sure.

CIVITAS · March 26, 2004 1:49AM

Is it actually copper? It looks like lead or pewter in the photo. Either way, I think everyone else has it pegged pretty good as some sort of counterfeit British/Irish coin.

coachleonard · March 26, 2004 2:28AM

A VERY interesting piece-- probably the crudest George III Irish halfpenny counterfeit I think I've seen. It's
so crudely done, it doesn't even resemble George III, but I am assuming that's who it's supposed to be-- maybe even George II. Could have been struck in Ireland, Canada or America in the late 1700's to early 1800's (again, I'm guessing). I do know that the crudest contemporary counterfiets of British George II and 1770's George III halfpennies bring strong prices at auction.

SYRACUSIAN · March 26, 2004 2:38AM

<< I don't know, but the script looks Greek. >>

All these years of education and you still haven't learned to distinguish the Greek characters Philip?
If anything, they look Cyrillic to me, especially those weird Ns .

lordmarcovan · March 26, 2004 8:39AM

Neat, crude counterfeit. Maybe Canadian.

Perhaps it's not so much a foreign alphabet as a garbled inscription done by a nearly illiterate engraver. Don't they call many of these "blacksmith coppers"? And how many illiterate blacksmiths were there in the colonies in the late 18th/early 19th centuries? Probably quite a few.

0john0 · March 26, 2004 10:10AM

Making it even tougher for the blacksmith would be doing the letters backwards.

MSD61 · March 26, 2004 11:19AM

It looks like, to me anyway, a conterfeit undated evasion coin. It is not copper but looks like pewter by the coloring. Evasion coins, though counterfeit, look a heck of a lot better than this slug.

lordmarcovan · March 26, 2004 2:49PM

<< Making it even tougher for the blacksmith would be doing the letters backwards. >>

Exactly. Look- there's a backward "N" in there.

As to the color, I am not at all convinced that the coin is pewter. It looks very much like it could be copper, from where I'm sittin'. The seller probably had to crank the brightness on the picture up in order to show the details.

Bruce · March 26, 2004 9:56PM

I would also lean towards the counterfit theory here.

Conder101 · March 27, 2004 12:00AM

I suspect it is an evasion piece but so far I hav been unable to locate it in Cobwright.

Philip · March 28, 2004 5:48PM

<< 

<< I don't know, but the script looks Greek. >>

All these years of education and you still haven't learned to distinguish the Greek characters Philip?
If anything, they look Cyrillic to me, especially those weird Ns .

>>

It was friday, I was tired as hell and didn't know what I was talking about. Actually I meant Latin.... but then the lira association does not hold up.

Anyway, that's a post I am truly ashamed of

satootoko · March 28, 2004 11:27PM

<< Every time you rate me, God kills a kitten >>

Hey Philip - is that a promise

1960NYGiants · March 29, 2004 12:04PM

Nothing like it in my Canadian references. Interesting piece.

Gene

What the heck is this? (pics added)

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