[advice] how to get a gold coin appraised

Great idea, CaseyH! Fascinating site. They actually won't do anything Spanish before 1800 and they don't handle "cobs."

By the way, for those interested, this is from CaseyH's site. Pretty interesting!

"The coinage of Spain, once restricted almost exclusively to domestic circulation, ultimately became an international currency. This did not happen immediately, however, as the metal recovered from mines in America was usually shipped to the mother country in the form of ingots or crude, temporary coins called macuquinas.

Known in English as “cobs,” these coins were made by simply refining the ore to slightly over 90% fineness, rolling it like cookie dough into a rod shape, and then slicing off pieces to form crude flans. These were trimmed with scissors to the prescribed weight and coined by the ancient hammer method. One die was mounted on an anvil, the flan was placed atop it, and the other die was suspended above the flan with tongs. A heavy blow or two from a sledge hammer impressed the design into both sides of the flan to form the coin. Given their crude method of manufacture, it’s not surprising that cobs are usually found irregularly shaped and with only partially visible designs. Dating and attributing these coins takes an experienced numismatist, and their collecting is usually limited to those having a deep interest in history.

Cobs, like the ingots that accompanied them from America to Spain, were simply a means of accounting for the silver and gold extracted from the colonial mines. This was critical, as the king was entitled by law to twenty percent of the treasure—the “royal fifth,” which was paid to him as tribute. Since cobs were of a temporary nature and quite awkward to handle, they were not generally used as a circulating currency. Most were melted upon arrival in Europe and recoined into more conventional issues. Those which have survived intact were almost certainly recovered from the wrecks of ships bound for Spain. The minting of cobs ended by the middle of the 18th Century."

 

Um... yes?

Admit it, you guys want my cob.

bigtexxx, what does HTH mean.

"Haters Tonna Hate?"
"Hangs Tubercular Head?"

 

Thanks, weslinder: there are about 20 within 30 miles of me, so I am set. Appreciate this very much.

pippendagimp, I think I'll just get it properly appraised. But when you don't have kids to leave something like this to... you know? ... and if things really do go to crap, historic value won't mean anything and it will be worth a lot less. It's kind of a "luxury" pursuit, this historic coin stuff.

 

Thank you! I was starting to think it was a performance-enhancing text.