Bought collection from diver who found 40 years ago 1 1

[4thalarm]

I bought a collection from a lady who dived 40 years ago and found everything in the photos. 2 silver coins, 1 coin corner, musket balls, and 2 cannon balls. And some nails. Can anyone give me an idea on the coins and rough value, should I get them cleaned or graded? 

[4thalarm]

[4thalarm]

[4thalarm]

[4thalarm]

[4thalarm]

[4thalarm]

[powermad5000]

Hello and welcome!

I am not an expert on these, but I used Google lens on the one side of the second coin, and it seems to be very similar to a Bolivian coin called a Cob. There is a Cob 8 with a different pattern with an 8 instead of a two, so I would guess yours would be a Cob 2????? These seem to be from the time period somewhere between 1700-1760. 

The first coin could be associated with Bolivia as well being found in the same area????? As for the fragment, I couldn't venture a guess even.

The values for these if they were in great condition could be in the thousands, however, that being said, these were water recovered and the surfaces look to have some porosity from being submerged in water (salt water?) which would greatly reduce their value. I would say a value of maybe $100 but that even could be too much for a water salvaged coin. I do not (and many others on here also do not) recommend cleaning coins. The surface of your coins have already suffered from water submersion and anything else you do to it will just further the damage to the surface.

I would say with the costs of grading coins that these specimens are not worth enough to justify the cost of having them graded and you could lose money in that process. I would acquire some type of flip or Kointaner if it will fit in that, seal them up, and keep them though. Nice underwater finds!

[Just Bob]

Are you familiar with the pirate movie term "Pieces of Eight?" Those are Spanish "Dollars", worth 8 Reales.  They were irregularly shaped hammered coins, often with part of the design missing. They were called "cobs," from the Spanish word "cabo" which referred to the fact that the clumps of silver were cut from the end of a bar and hammered into crude shapes. The cobs were coined in denominations of 1/2, 1, 2, 4, and 8 reales.  Your top two coins look to be 2 Reales pieces. The upper one is, I believe from Bolivia, as Powermad suggested, and the second one, if I am not mistaken, is from Peru. Specifically Lima, Peru. The top line of the reverse has the inscription "L 2 H." This stands for Lima, the denomination (2 reales) and the assayer's initial (H). The bottom line is H 00 L, with the "00" being the last two digits of the date, 1700. The 8 reales coins were sometimes cut into pieces and used as smaller denominations. That may be what your last piece is, or it could just be a remnant of a damaged coin. The cross with castles and lions can be seen on all three pieces. This was considered the obverse of the Peruvian coins, but it was on the reverse of coins from some of the other Spanish colonies.

[RWB]

The first Spanish-American coin seems to be a 4 reales and the second is a 2 reales. The fragment....?

[VKurtB]

On 8/2/2023 at 12:23 AM, Just Bob said:

Are you familiar with the pirate movie term "Pieces of Eight?" Those are Spanish "Dollars", worth 8 Reales.  They were irregularly shaped hammered coins, often with part of the design missing. They were called "cobs," from the Spanish word "cabo" which referred to the fact that the clumps of silver were cut from the end of a bar and hammered into crude shapes. The cobs were coined in denominations of 1/2, 1, 2, 4, and 8 reales.  Your top two coins look to be 2 Reales pieces. The upper one is, I believe from Bolivia, as Powermad suggested, and the second one, if I am not mistaken, is from Peru. Specifically Lima, Peru. The top line of the reverse has the inscription "L 2 H." This stands for Lima, the denomination (2 reales) and the assayer's initial (H). The bottom line is H 00 L, with the "00" being the last two digits of the date, 1700. The 8 reales coins were sometimes cut into pieces and used as smaller denominations. That may be what your last piece is, or it could just be a remnant of a damaged coin. The cross with castles and lions can be seen on all three pieces. This was considered the obverse of the Peruvian coins, but it was on the reverse of coins from some of the other Spanish colonies.

And if you counterstamp it with a modern nude, that would be “porn on the cob”, or something like that…

[powermad5000]

On 8/2/2023 at 10:30 AM, VKurtB said:

And if you counterstamp it with a modern nude, that would be “porn on the cob”, or something like that…

This cracked me up last night and it is still cracking me up today! 

[VKurtB]

On 8/3/2023 at 5:29 PM, powermad5000 said:

This cracked me up last night and it is still cracking me up today! 

Gotta find a way to laugh in this hobby, lest its demise into a cesspool of incompetence leads one to cutting oneself. 

[USAuPzlBxBob]

The one coin that's got the most detail going on, when you show it to others, use VKurtB's joke, and do it with a Groucho Marx vocal-imitation, since the double "o" on the coin lends to a hint of Groucho's glasses.