Denis, I went to graduate school in the U.K. (U. London and Sheffield) - it's
not a pound symbol. Thank you for the input though.

Thanks to everyone for their help - to Marge and her brother especially. I had
gone a little further myself and figured out it was colonial and indeed a
coin, but the dating evidence is invaluable, as is the more detailed
description of the British East India Coat of Arms Marge sent in a separate
email.


Maureen Basedow
Visiting Asst. Professor of Archaeology
Anthropology Program
UNCW


Unive

>===== Original Message From HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]> =====
>Maureen
>
>Could "....looks like an English 'L' with squiggly
>horizontal bar" be a standard English pound [currency] symbol?
>
>Denis
>
>
>>> [log in to unmask] 04/27 1:20 am >>>
>To identify: a very worn thin bronze disk - too thin, I think to be a coin
(?)
>but both sides with rilled border.  Condition is poor - apologies for the
>vagueness of the descriptions.
>
>size 21mm
>weight about 1/4 oz.
>
>Obverse. British royal arms, early (?) version. text around edge, inside
>rilling: "Island of S(?)um (?)      "
>
>Reverse. Three arabic or hindi letters. First one unreadable. Second one
>arabic Th!aa or Taa'. Third one --- looks like an English 'L' with squiggly
>horizontal bar (in other words, can't find this letter in my arabic
>dictionary). Center base near edge inside rilling, the numbers 7 (?) and 9,
>looking very arabic (or hindi).
>
>The disk comes from the yard midden of a southeastern North Carolina
>plantation house. Earliest building on the site may date to mid- to late 18th
>century.
>
>Thanks for any help!
>
>Maureen Basedow
>Visiting Asst. Professor of Archaeology
>Anthropology Program
>University of North Carolina, Wilmington