Help My Mother-In-Law with her Old Spanish Coins

I've been waiting all the week to see these 2 coins, 7 days passed since she told me about them. She doesn't live with us, so I had to wait to make this thread. Today, as usual I found her in the kitchen cooking something delicious, immediately ask her about the coins, got a camera and took a few photos while researching a bit. I did 2 shots of each side in case of reflection of light.






In one of them (the big one) I can read "VII" and "1811". In the other (the smaller) I read "Carolus III", "Dei Gratia", "Hispan . ET. IND." , "R.M.F.M." (not sure), also read the year "1735". Probably a silver 1/2 Real.




Not sure if the years match with the time Charles III King of Spain was ruling, specialy in the case of the little one. Didn't find the exact match in the web yet, I wonder how rare they are. So....., do you want to help me?

Very interesting

a reply to: Trueman
Could that "1735" be "1785"? It would fit his dates better.
"By the grace of God" and "Spain and the Indies", but I can't guess at the initials. Latin, I presume.

The 1811 one is Ferdinand VII. You can easily see the VII in the bottom photo, and obscurely a short "Ferdinand" in front of it.
In 1811 he had been deposed by Napoleon, but this would not have been recognised in the Americas. The wars brought him back to the throne of Spain in 1813.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: Trueman
Could that "1735" be "1785"? It would fit his dates better.
"By the grace of God" and "Spain and the Indies", but I can't guess at the initials. Latin, I presume.

Yeah, I think the "3" could be an "8" or maybe a "5" ?

I think those initials are the key. I found a site with photos of similar coins but the initials are different. Seems like those letters are a code linked tor an specific country. Take a look :

www.ma-shops.com...

a reply to: Trueman
And have you seen my edit relating to the second coin? Ferdinand VII.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: Trueman
And have you seen my edit relating to the second coin? Ferdinand VII.

I did, thanks. I agree. So cool to have that piece of history in my hand.

a reply to: Trueman
The third coin on the website seems to have the initials FMM, followed by an "R" the other way up, as though not directly belonging with the others. "R" could be "real" ("royal").

Good point. Someone else found a coin with same initials, I found this great clue too :

It appears to be a 17 millimeters diameter Spanish-Mexican 1/2 Real. That design features King Charles III (1760-88). The F and M are the Mexico City mint's assayers' initials. The Mexico City mintmark is an M with a small o over it. It should weigh 1.6917 grams and would contain .0491 of an ounce of silver.
Collector value depends on date, number minted and condition of a coin, including amount of wear, any dents, scratches or cleaning. This one, if it says Carols instead of Carolus, is an error and may be worth about $50 with heavy wear to maybe $200 with moderate wear to possibly $400 with light wear.

en.allexperts.com...

Hey, also think I found a match for the bigger one ?

commons.wikimedia.org...:FERDINAND_VII_1811_coin.jpg

a reply to: Trueman

For the first coin I found this:

www.coinfactswiki.com...

For the second I found this:

books.google.com...,+%22Dei+Gratia+1735&source=bl&ots=iDjtJJl3p-&sig=K29W96nyQ NVm3BcMS9LlMKak1jc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5PG6VKj3H4KbyAS3iYDYBA&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Carolus%20III%22%2C%20%22Dei%20Gratia%201735&f=false

you might check out that book

or

www.coins.nd.edu...

The second coin might be worth more.

a reply to: Trueman

I'll start the bidding at 20 euros.

originally posted by: nerbot
a reply to: Trueman

I'll start the bidding at 20 euros.

She took them back after the photos.

a reply to: OrphanApology

Thanks for that info. She'll be back tomorrow to ask me what we found about the coins.

a reply to: Trueman

No problem.

Also for the second coin I didn't find anything for a version in 1735 but ones that looked similar from 1785.

en.numista.com...

I think that is the same coin.

Also, based on that website it has a rarity of 92/100. I would say the second coin is the more interesting of the two.

a reply to: OrphanApology


Yeah. The second one is a bit intriguing. I made a zoom at the date showed and it certainly doesn't match with the time frame for such a coin.

a reply to: Trueman
To me that "3" does look like a very worn "8", so I think the time-frame could be right.

How big were the coins?

I agree. You can see the ghost outline of where it turns. More than likely got chipped/worn. I think it's a worn version of coin I linked. According to that site those coins were minted from 1785 to 89. Also, Carlos III did not rule spain(and incidentally Peru) until 1759.

a reply to: Trueman

Guten Tag- Do You believe in "Synchronicity"? The reason I ask is that I recently bought a "mid-life" grocery getter, a VW GTI™ w/the 200 hp turbo anyways, I was trying to synch the local 70's FM station and they were playing an ad about a local coin buyer where one buyer offered $7.00 and this guy ended up giving $7,000.00 The fact that the coin mentioned was a Spanish coin from "our earliest visitors".. I'll add an edit with this guy's info..



Edit:gocoinsandpreciousmetals.com...

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