While hunting a field which was the site of an early 1800s colonial settlement in Australia, my Equinox hit a jumpy 25 in the quiet soil of the area. After digging the plug and locating the coin, I didn't recognise this coin at all from the common British colonial era coins from this time period. After a quick research with my phone, I discovered it was a Spanish 1 Reale Silver coin! I was excited and confused at the same time then as I had no idea why a Spanish Reale would even be in Australia let alone in my hand now. Turns out the early colonial traders sometimes used silver coins from other countries to trade with before the official currency for the country was declared. Mostly these sorts of coins were used in the port cities such as Sydney. But I was a long way from those places! I discovered too only a handful of these have ever been found here in Australia. Making it one of the rarest coins to find in this part of the world.
David - Australia
