Dianne Smith: From The Messenger’s Files: J. M. Mason finds Spanish doubloon
Published 6:35 pm Tuesday, July 22, 2025
The Spanish doubloon was a coin worth approximately four Spanish reales, or four Spanish dollars. According to a 1958 story in the Troy Messenger, a doubloon was found in Pike County.
Dianne Smith
J. M. Mason, a retired Pike County farmer, now living in Troy, has in his possession a Spanish Doubloon, bearing the date 1650, which he plowed up several years ago while preparing his land for planting.
At the time the coin was found, around 1914 or 1915, Mason was living on the Peleg Wood place, located on the Springhill-Henderson Road, approximately 11 miles south of Troy. The coin was found early in the spring of the year, and the land was being “bedded” (the customary way of preparing land at that time) for planting.
The coin, which is prized very highly by Mason, has on one side the words, “one doubloon, anno 1650, dominus,” with the face of a Spanish king in the center. On the reverse side are the words, “pirate gold, 1650,” and in the center is a soldier with a sword in his right hand and a dagger in his left.
Auxford S. Sartain, history teacher at Troy State College, who is an authority on matter of this kind, says the coin was probably used by the Spanish when they occupied this country, and lost, or it may have fallen into the hands of Indians, who lived in this section later and lost by them. He doubts that it has much value, except for its age, which is 308 years.
Regardless of its cash value, the coin is highly prized by its owner as a keepsake. It’s doubtful that many people living today have ever seen a “doubloon,” and it’s likely that even fewer people know that such a coin ever existed.
Mason retired from farming in 1929 and, since that time, has lived in Troy. In November 1957, his wife died, and he now lives alone in an apartment at 114 W. Normal Avenue.
Mason farmed on the Wood place for nearly a quarter of a century. He recalls that he gathered 23 crops from the place. The remaining years of his active life were spent near the Wood place.
All of these articles can be found in previous editions of The Troy Messenger. Stay tuned for more. Dianne Smith is the President of the Pike County Historical, Genealogical, and Preservation Society.
