I recently found an odd piece of copper while metal detecting. I was checking it out and saw what appears to be a crown over a Roman Numeral III. There are other emblems on the opposite side. It is very thin and lightweight (2.2 grams) and approximately the size of an American quarter.
i have been told it likely is a Phillip III 8 Maravedris. Is this accurate? Can you confirm what it is, age and tell me what the symbols on it mean?
id also like to see pictures of the coin as I have been unable to find anything that resembles it.
It certainly looks like a cob coin, and the 8 might well indicate a value of 8 maravedis.
Many of these were counterstamped on other coins thus creating many different types.
I'll let the experts on these coins opine on which variety it may be.
Good luck and welcome.
Are you sure it is copper? Based on the photo, it doesn't look like a 350 year old copper coin that has been buried for who knows how long and may I ask where you found it? At 2.2g from what you have been told is supposed to originally be a 6.6g coin, the corrosion was significant and a copper coin with that much corrosion would not have that type of patina. Did you harshly clean it with chemicals ? Something is not right here. This is an 8 Maravedis copper coin. https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces137749.html
Well I truly have no ideas about this coin but I had posted it in 2 other forums and that was what they believed it was. It has what appears to be copper colored spots on it which tied into it being a Maravedis. I did tumble it with some pennies in water and Dawn detergent for a short period.
with the crown and number III do you have any ideas what it might be? I’ve looked at numerous examples and found nothing resembling it. Thanks for replying and for any info you can share
Adding to it I would like to point out these are also 8 Maravedis coins...
Absolutely, but I was showing one example to make my point about color. The examples you show are still not the near the color of the coin the gentleman is asking about. It does not look like original patina as confirmed by his response.
Citeer: "Chip Kirkpatrick"Well I truly have no ideas about this coin but I had posted it in 2 other forums and that was what they believed it was. It has what appears to be copper colored spots on it which tied into it being a Maravedis. I did tumble it with some pennies in water and Dawn detergent for a short period.
with the crown and number III do you have any ideas what it might be? I’ve looked at numerous examples and found nothing resembling it. Thanks for replying and for any info you can share
I asked about the composition in an attempt to verify the information so that myself and others can better try to help you. From the photographs provided, I thought it could have been silver or billon.
Felipe III and his son Felipe VI were the kings of the counterstamp (specially Felipe IV)
In my opinion looking only to the counterstamp, you have here a coin from Felipe III with a counterstamp from his reign which later was also counterstamped in Felipe IV reign.
For the stamp with Crown + *III + S Ican give you two options since its missing the first digit of the counterstamp:
- it could be the counterstamp ordered with the law Pragmática de 18 de Septiembre de 1603 under Felipe III reign to revalue coins to 4 Maravedies. Coins from the Reyes Catolicos, Felipe II and Felipe III were counterstamped under this law (coins from before 1602 with a value of 2 maravedies). The counterstamping was only the "value", no dates were added; the counterstamp in the coin seems to be like the one form Sevilla (thats why the S in the counterstamp)
- it could be the counterstamp ordered with the law Pragmática de 18 de Septiembre de 1603 under Felipe III reign to revalue coins to 8 Maravedies. Coins from the Reyes Catolicos, Felipe II and Felipe III were counterstamped under this law (coins from before 1602 with a value of 4 maravedies). The counterstamping was only the "value", no dates were added; the counterstamp in the coin seems to be like the one form Sevilla (thats why the S in the counterstamp)
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The stamp VI i think it could be the counterstamp ordered with the law Pragmática de 11 de Marzo de 1636 and not the one ordered with the law Pramática 11 de Febrero de 1641 because the ones from 1636 are the only having several mints making a simple VI (Toledo and Valladolid were theese mints). Coins from the Reyes Catolicos, Felipe II and Felipe III were counterstamped under this law (coins from before 1602 with a value of 2 maravedies). In this case the counterstamping was the value in one side and a date in the oder side, a crowned 1636 followed by dots and other details; i am not able to see a 1636 in the other side of your coin, it really seems a date but i guess not a 1636.
Hope it helps in some way
Se queres ca muller che queira, ten diñeiro na carteira
Thank you for the reply. As somebody who is uneducated in these coins I’m not sure I followed all of that but what I believe I took was 1) it is indeed a cob, 2) these coins were “revalued”, thus the need to counter stamp them. Quite interesting.
So if my guess towards the composition of the coin is wrong, what do you think it might have been made of?
