Need Help With Identification

BMoney · January 10, 2009 5:15AM

Hello Ladies, and gentlemen,

I am posting a coin I found in the box of my Grandfather's box that I got from my Grandmother's estate a year ago. I looked for a while but have been unsuccessful in finding out what this is. I am possitive it is foreign, and I hope its very valuable, because I think my Grand father would love to pay off my college loans.

Any information would be great even if it just a point in the right research direction.

Thanks

FilthyBroke · January 10, 2009 5:34AM

LINK to CoinArchives

I think it's one of these, and given the amount of damage incurred, I doubt it's worth much, sorry.

I'm having a tough time matching the obverse, anyone wanna step in here?

spoon · January 10, 2009 5:41AM

Looks like a Bolivian 8(?) soles from the 1820s-30s cut into quarters. Coins were legitimately cut like this so that's not damage. But this is really out of my area. You'll have to wait for one of the experts to tell you what the punch makes it and judge originality (I know I've seen something like that mark before though).

FilthyBroke · January 10, 2009 5:46AM

<< <i>. Coins were legitimately cut like this so that's not damage. >>

The obverse area was concerning me, looked like a huge scrape....could it be some sort of stamp?

BMoney · January 10, 2009 8:50AM

This may seem like a silly question but is there a reference book like the red book for this kind of stuff?

Thanks

lordmarcovan · January 10, 2009 9:51AM

There are the Krause catalogs for general world coin reference, but unless a cut colonial piece like this carries a specific countermark that identifies it as a "coin" of a particular country or province, you won't find them listed. I was just discussing the need for a good, wide-ranging, illustrated counterstamp reference with Greg Capps (aka "savoyspecial"), who is one of our resident counterstamp guys here on the forums.

The host coin, before it was cut, clearly came from Bolivia, but the key to the mystery here is identifying where the counterstamp came from. I do not recognize it.

When it was a whole coin, it was legal tender in Bolivia, obviously, but the cutdown job (which was common, to make small change) and the subsequent counterstamp, made it legal tender and therefore a "coin" of some other place. Assuming it is an official or quasi-official mark. It looks like many such official counterstamps.

I will forward a link to this thread to Mr. Capps, who might have some more information. Or not. Info on counterstamps is pretty sketchy at this time, unless somebody knows of a reference work I am unaware of. Such a volume would have to be vast indeed, to cover all the known marks, punches and stamps out there, since private merchants also counterstamped a lot of coins in that era.

On an unimportant side note: I like your pictures but dislike your watermark that covers part of the coins. I saw some of your other images on the forums. It looks slick (i.e., professional, if a bit show-offy), but is kind of distracting. Have you found it that necessary to deter image thieves?

PS to say- welcome to the forums.

And also: don't go banking your college tuition on that one (I realize you might have made that comment in jest). To venture a WAG, in the very best case scenario, I think you're looking at a three-figure pricetag, but under normal circumstances, well under $50-100. But who knows? Not me.

savoyspecial · January 10, 2009 10:52AM

closest thing i can find in Rulau's "Latin American Tokens" is under the Bolivia unattributed section

that exact stamp is not found but there is a serif R (retrograde) that is found in similar fashion on a 1/5 segment of Bolivian 8 Soles (type used 1827-1863).......Rulau notes that many of these maverick stamps were brand marks.......a 1991 Krueger sale apparently realized $100 for this piece he mentions

wish i had more to tell......i do not recall seeing that exact stamp before and as Rob stated, information is sketchy at best

lordmarcovan · January 10, 2009 11:02AM

For the record, the "maverick" term he used, when applied to a token or a counterstamp, means a piece of unknown or mass-produced general origin, if I have the definition down.

fastcoin · January 10, 2009 12:59PM

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Need Help With Identification

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