Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| 2-Reale From Treasure Coast Beach |
Here is a 2-reale that was found on a Treasure Coast beach.
You can clearly see the center of the shield and to the right of that you can see the "2" indicating the denomination.
This photo was taken through the cellophane of the coin holder so it is not as clear as it could be.
The more you know about cobs, the easier it is to identify and locate important design features.
That means that even though you can't see either the date on the cob, or the mint mark and assayer initial, that would appear to the left of the shield, you still have enough information to narrow down the date of the cob to 1702 to 1710. That would be a common date for 1715 Fleet cobs. And this cob was found on a 1715 Fleet beach.
To the right is an illustration of the Bourban design as shown in Sewall Menzel's book, Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins.
You can see the difference between the Bourbon design and the Hapsburg design (1679-1701), shown here for comparison (Also from the Menzel book.)
There are a lot of clues to the identity and date of cobs even when you don't find a lot of detail on your cob.
As I've said before, I personally like half reales. I like the monograms.
Half reales usually don't show much, but you can often tell a lot from what you can see.
Maybe I'll get into some of the variations that provide good information on half reales some other day.
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| Hapsburg Shield Design |
The seas will be calm for at least a couple of days.
There is a full moon, but under the circumstances, it is hardly worth mentioning.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
