Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
 |
| Half Reale Once Found on Jupiter Beach. |
I've been spending some time studying modern coin finds - especially errors and varieties. You might be surprised how detailed that can get. As a result I've learned to look at coins in a different way. That includes old coins and cobs as well as modern coins.
Above is a half reale I found at Jupiter beach a number of years ago. Unfortunately I didn't record the date so I don't know exactly when that was even though I remember it very well. Observing the weather, I thought that Jupiter beach might be eroding, so I got in the car and made the nearly one-hour drive. When I got there I saw the waves hitting the back dunes and creating a nice cut. The waves were hitting the cut hard and washing away large chunks of sand with every hit.
I'm pretty sure the cob shown above was washed out of the dunes. I caught it in the rapid knee to hip high water that was rushing back down the slope. The side shown above was covered with a thick sand crust. The other side was pretty much as it is shown below. I could see the cross, as I braced myself against the rushing water and took it out of the scoop.
Some people reduce each find to a single number - how much it is worth - but a coin contains volumes of information. This cob is like a recording that goes back to geological time.
If you were to analyze it scientifically you could narrow down where the metal was formed and where it came from. The shape and type of the cob is typical of those from the Jupiter wreck. The shape is the handiwork of a worker who cut the planchet.
You also see the work of those who made the die and those who held the die and swung the hammer.
The design itself is the result of politics and royal decrees having far reaching roots and effects.
You see the work of the person who held the die and the man who swung the hammer.
If you inspect a coin closely, you'll see how worn the die was - whether it was new or worn and perhaps showing small cracks or breaks.
You can see where the die was recut and where the die bounced and created a partial second impression.
You can see the results of it being in salt water and on the beach for hundreds of years. There are even a few grains or sand remaining.
You can even see the result of the cob being cleaned and my own hands where I slipped and made a scratch of my own, which will last as long as the coin. A good eye can tell that scratch was made after the cob was recovered.
Those are just some of the things you can see if you study this cob.
 |
| Side That Was Not Protected by A Crust of Sand. |
The second photo shows the side that I could see as soon as I took the cob out of my scoop. It is not as clear as the side that was originally protected by a thick layer of crust that made that side invisible.
If you look at this side closely, you can see a nice lion rampant in the upper right quadrant and a castle to the left. You can also see some of the legend between two partial circles of dots.
Unlike many of the cobs that I've shown in this blog, this cob is not from the Mexico mint. You can easily tell that from the cross.
I've just begun to study coins more closely and am a novice at numismatics, but find it very interesting.
Returning to the other side of the cob for a minute, here is the Philip monogram up close.
 |
| Philip Monogram. |
The monogram is very clear. Notice the horizontal bar in the middle that appears to stand out higher than any of the other parts of the design.
My guess is, and someone could probably confirm, that the die was well worn and the die was sharpened up. The bar was carved into the worn die after it was well worn.
Although modern coins are produced by machines and this one was struck by hand, the process is still very similar and you'll see many similar effects.
Imagine the fellow that carve the die and how he cut the negative into the die. He made some nice rounded dots.
You can see how the metal was compacted and stressed and the how the metal flowed into the areas where the die was hollowed out.
Here is a detail on the other side.
 |
Close-up Detail of Half Reale. |
The "S" looks weird. It doesn't look like an S at all. It looks more like an eight - actually multiple eights. What happened?
It could be a couple things. A real numismatist could probably tell me, or with a little more study I could probably figure it out, but it could be that the die bounced when it was struck.
It also looks to me like the die could have been recut - and perhaps incorrectly.
You see similar things on modern coins. As I said recently, by studying modern coin errors and varieties, I've learned to look at cobs in a new way.
I'll get into that more some other day.
I'd be happy to receive corrections or additional observations or thoughts about this cob.
One reason I decided to revisit this cob is because my photography has improved since I last posted it.
I hope that you will look at old cobs as containing volumes of information. If you study them, they are more than a number. They record a lot of history. And by careful observation and study, you can unravel the story for yourself.
I've often said that if you know everything about anything, you know everything about everything.
---
If I showed enough hate maybe I could get a job writing for the New York Slimes.
---
Beach conditions have not improved and remain poor. The tides are not big and the wind continues from the south. The surf is only one to two feet.
There is one disturbance way out in the middle of the Atlantic, but it will probably never affect us.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
