Week At The Beach, Ancient Coin Surprise

[F350Platinum]

Just got back from a beach camping trip, probably the hottest week I've ever been camping, but it was my wife's birthday "week", so we went. Daytime temps were in the high 90s every day, only one day was there not an offshore wind, and never more than a few miles an hour. 🥵 I usually couldn't take it for much more than 5 hours at a time, starting at 6 am and quitting at 11 when the beach filled up.

I got out detecting for 5 days of the 6 I was there, a few people said I was the only detectorist they saw, but near the end of my trip I saw a few. 

Atlantic Ghost Crabs were everywhere, actually nicked this one with my coil. A lot of Lions' Mane jellyfish started washing up, so I didn't go fully in the water.

I saw one with what looked exactly like a Spanish cross on it, which ironically was a portent of things to come 🤔

This is a typical day's trash, just the usual junk. I switched between the Manticore with the 9 and 15 and the Deus 2 with the 13 all week, both great detectors, however the Deus on V2 is much better at junk rejection. I've been using the Mcore a lot now, but still think the D2 my "go 2". 😅

Here's the stuff:

Hot Wheels, a working dog training collar that vibrates when a dog barks, a JBL earbud, junk bracelets and earrings, some rings and 94 coins. 

Missing from this photo are 2 ERTL John Deere tractor toys:

And two rings, one a Pandora gold plated silver ring:

And a chrome plated dolphin ring that I gave to the grandkids when they visited, they were camping at another campground not too far away. 

My wife took the silver moonstone ring: 

And the really big gold one is a plated stainless earlobe expander ring 😬 Whatever.

Now for the F350 grand finale, I got a 67 on the Deus in the dry and I thought, "oh, a really nice pull tab! 

Nope.

This little beauty is a 1662-64 (date didn't get stamped) King Philip IV 2 Maravedis copper. I cannot believe it lasted 360+ years, probably was dredged up onto the beach during a replenishment. Perhaps the dry saved it, who knows?

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces112777.html

This is a better example from Numista:

It has a rarity index of 95.

 

To me, this coin is more interesting than anything, and believe me I searched that area two more times, thought maybe a tiny escudo got missed 😅

Fun trip, but way too hot, we didn't get to do a lot of stuff, but my wife had a great birthday week. 

🍀

[JCR]

Nice Birthday trip and hunting.  That coin is some serious old and in amazing condition too.

[F350Platinum]

8 minutes ago, JCR said:

Nice Birthday trip and hunting.  That coin is some serious old and in amazing condition too.

Thanks JCR, I consider myself blessed on many fronts. 🙂

[mn90403]

4 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

This little beauty is a 1662-64 (date didn't get stamped) King Philip IV 2 Maravedis copper.

How long did it take you to determine you had something with this piece?  I mean it is not something you would expect to find or have found another one so when did the YAHOO come?  haha

[F350Platinum]

14 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

How long did it take you to determine you had something with this piece?  I mean it is not something you would expect to find or have found another one so when did the YAHOO come?  haha

The old symbols gave it away pretty quickly, but the YAHOO came much later after a lot of research. At first I thought it might be a hammered coin, but I learned something about roller milling. 🙂 A first for me. I'm no stranger to old Spanish coins, but they're usually silver.

I had to edit this post as there are a few varieties of this coin, so the hits just keep coming 😅. I think I got it right now.

[GotAU?]

Very nice!!  I’m no expert, but Is it possible that it’s a Real (4 Meravedis) coin? Looks like it has a “IIII”’on the back also

 

Sorta like this?

[Rivers rat]

I have to say fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!while we find them on the Thames.I love finding old cons on beaches ,they obviously tell a story

 

RR

[F350Platinum]

6 hours ago, GotAU? said:

Very nice!!  I’m no expert, but Is it possible that it’s a Real (4 Meravedis) coin? Looks like it has a “IIII”’on the back also

 

Sorta like this?

Thanks man, the II circled below properly identified it. What a small coin! 👍

[F350Platinum]

4 hours ago, Rivers rat said:

I have to say fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!while we find them on the Thames.I love finding old cons on beaches ,they obviously tell a story

 

RR

Thanks RR,

Any coins from Spanish wrecks are rare finds on our beaches, so it's a pretty big deal here. In 5 years of detecting, I've only found one hammered coin, a King James 1 Sixpence. Well, half of it with the date.

I did find an 1816 8 Maravedis coin on a beach locally, I think it was dropped with another coin, a 1916 Cuban Libertad nickel. Probably lucky coins in that case, it was next to a gambling establishment. 

Most of what we find around my house and county are cut silver pistareens, and the odd whole silver reales from time to time. They used Spanish currency here until the 1850s.

I also have one of the first authorized coins from England, King George III had 500,000 of them made in 1773, and shipped them to Boston. It's called the Virginia Half Cent, I found it about 100 yards from my house.

🍀