Coin with two halves pressed together

[lozz38]

Hi all,
Recently found this old coin at my local old goldfield/ghostown here in oz. It is not in good condition at all and must have changed hands a lot of times before it was lost beside the old campfire. It appears to a Hibernian halfpenny with King George the III's nose on the obverse side and if I wet the coin and get it in just the right light while cross eyed and squinting a bit I can just make out 1804. I know it's not worth much cos it's so worn, but the strange thing is it looks to be two halves joined together with the join clearly visible around the edge. I read somewhere that these coins were counterfeited a lot but i am not sure why you would bother with half a penny. It has an i.d. of 38-40 on my xt70 with stock coil.
I have viewed this forum many times in the past and learnt a lot from all the information posted here but this is my first post and i want to thank all those who contribute their thoughts here for others to learn from.
Happy hunting,
Laurie.

 

[Beale]

Congrats on that nice find! I have no idea as to why it looks as if it is 2 coins though, Beale.

 

[tony (Orlando FL)]

Hi Laurie,

those are GREAT pics of such a difficult item to shoot with the camera. I sure dont know why there appears to be a seam on the coin edge unless that is how they were made back then. Maybe two halves compressed into one, I have no idea and this is only a guess on my part with no knowledge of coins ever being made this way.

Someone should know something about it.

Tony

 

[7centsworth]

Real or fake that is a nice find in my book. Real good picture also .

 

[TURNMASTER]

Cool Coin
My theory is the stamping of the coin compressed the outside faces of the coin more than the center. Even if just a little tiny bit denser the faces would have just a little bit more resistance to the acidic soil.

HH
Jeff

 

[Furious T]

Gerday Lozz! Nice find. It probably isn't counterfeit. Your may have found it just in time. Another 50 - 100 years and it might have come in half I found a penny (about 150 years younger than yours) at the edge of a saltwater river. It actually came apart, exactly in half, and I had two thin discs. I'm not sure how pennies were made in the 1800s or whether it changed in the 1900s, but I was pretty amazed that my penny came apart the way it did. Somehow the corrosion got right through the centre of the coin. If a coin is not in a salty area then I presume it would not deteriorate as quickly as one that is (that's my experience anyhow). Congrats again on the find! It's great when you find something really old. HH

 

[dtalbott]

Furious T. Joined this forum specifically to ask about your two-part penny. My wife has a "half" penny herself. It is the reverse side of a penny that looks post 1958. It includes the rim. Looks like a little 'tray'.
Have you found anything about yours?
- David

 

[KS Brad]

Hello. some coins that have been counterfeited were made from a cast of an original coin. This coin looks like it may have gone through a casting process and they didn't clean the edge up before it was lost. As to the wear, they may have used an older original so the fake wouldn't look as new.....maybe to pass it off as real easier...??? Maybe, just a thought.

 

[Snoopy36]

That's not two coins pressed together that's a coin design - many coins have like a ridged edge like that (not sure of the right terminology). The word Hibernia is the old word for Ireland. Most likely a 1700's coin. Could be George 3rd halfpenny. http://www.coinquest.com/cgi-bin/cq/coins?main_coin=1763&main_ct_id=31

 

[Terra1959]

Nice one Laurie
1804 is old
Congrats

T59

 

[jpdane]

Wow Laurie, that's really cool and Snoopy36 what an awsome thing to show to go with it. I'm impressed with it all. Great find Laurie.

 

[Snoopy36]

I just realised that you wrote that you can see 1804. In that case most likely an Irish Halfpenny. check out this link it has the same rim on the coin

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10413717@N08/3379831211

Cheers
Snoopy

 

[kiwi-jim]

Cool find Laurie
woundn't it be great to find out the history behind it and how it got to Aussie..HH

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Congrats on such an old find Laurie.
It's very rare to find such old coins in these parts.
Mick Evans.

 

[Carolina Phil]

Go to this web site and scroll toward the bottom of the page for the information that I have pasted below.

Nice find!



Irish Milled Coinage (1660-1823)

Bank Tokens and Soho Coppers (1804-1813)

By the early 1800's the poor state of the currency in Ireland was placing a severe restriction on the functioning of the Irish economy with a mixed variety of foreign coins of varying quality silver content making up the middle tier of the circulating coinage. The lower tier being made up of a series of poorly made copper tokens and even poorer forgeries of these tokens.

Only the gold in circulation (which was primarily English, but included smaller quantities of many foreign coinages) was of good quality but it was difficult to obtain good quality change for gold and it carried a significant premium in exchange. Banknotes also began to appear in Ireland at this time.

The Bank of Ireland tried to aleviate the problem by importing quantities of Spanish (or South American) 8 real pieces which by this time had become one of the standard coins of the world.

However as the price of silver against gold was varying widely at this time it was difficult to establish a constant value for these peices as the country would alternatively be flooded or drained of the coins.

The bank decide to restrike the coins with a higher face value than was appropriate for their intrinsic worth and issued a large quantity of six shilling coins with the design struck over the spanish pieces. The pieces were not universally popular but did stabalise the economy for a time. The restriking was carried out by Mathew Boulton in his private mint in Soho in Birmingham as the Royal Mint had no free capacity.

In 1805 and 1806 the Royal Mint authorised Mathew Boulton to strike an issue of copper pennies, halfpennies and farthings for issuing in Ireland.

The Bank of Ireland continued its production of bank tokens in silver with the release of a five and ten pence coin dated 1805 and 1806. The Act authorising the tokens was only effective for 1805 so the bank quickly redated the coins to 1805 and continued to issue these tokens dated 1805 during 1806, 1807 and 1808.

In 1808 a thirty pence (half a crown) token was added to the series and a final issue of 10 pence tokens occurred in 1813.

Mathew Boulton also struck an issue of copper pennies and halfpennies in 1805 and farthings in 1806 in Soho which were official regal coinage and not of token status. These copper issues also occur in proof or specimen strikings in copper, bronzed copper, copper gilt, silver and gold. The currency issues have an engrailed edge (i.e. a grove cut into the edge around the coin) with oblique milling within the engrailing. The proof and specimen coins occur with plain edges and with the engrailing. Some proofs, typically the gilt and the silver and gold examples were issued in bonze cases or shells. Examples with the original shells command a better price than the coins without the shells.