Coin Value | Spanish Cob for Tourists

Spanish Cob for Tourists

Date: no date	Mint mark: not apparent	Size: large
Description: a cross on one side with squiggley markings and Irregular markings; the other side designs and markings looking like waves in some areas and maybe one number looking like the number 8,(but my son says it looks more like part of a boat.) no other letters or number. It looks like the cob coin you have listed here, but mine is in better condition. It is the size of a silver dollar and just right at the same weight. I do not know if it is silver or gold. I do have 2 pictues of it on my computer if you want me to send it to you for viewing. I'm so glad I found your site today. very interesting. I do not know hardly much about coins, this one was my broters and I do not know how he aquired it. He passed Jan. 10 this year.
Composition: gold	Wear: little or no wear	Eye appeal: attractive
Country: maybe Spain	Denomination: not specified	Holder: not specified

[Request 7055 received from Connie, Friday, 11-Mar-2011, answered by Paul]

Connie sent us these pictures of her mystery coin. It is a puzzle, because it has some features of old Spanish colonial coins, such as the Jerusalem cross and pillars, but the other squigglies and beads are foreign to genuine coins.

Fortunately for CoinQuest, there are real experts on such material, and the ones over at ForumAncientCoins.com shed light on Connie's puzzle. Rick2 at ForumAncients said

It's a copy (very badly made) of a Spanish piece of 8 reales struck in South America. It was probably struck for tourists.

so the value would be essentially zero.

If you compare Connie's coin with this genuine 8 reales from Bolivia dated 1688, you can see faint similarities, but nothing remotely close to an authentic Spanish colonial coin.