Thread: 1794 Spanish 8 reales with strange marks

I bought this coin a while back with curiosity about all of these little markings. In the middle of all these markings there are two Swastikas. It has been cleaned but still very curious. Thanks.

Chop marks ftom merchants?

I dunno.

Those are indeed chopmarks. When a merchant deemed the coin to be accurate i.e. the correct weight and finess, then the said merchant would stamp the coin with his mark. Coins with a lot of marks such as yours have a lot of history due to the fact that they were used by a lot of different merchants. Some of the chopmarks can even be traced to specific merchants and locations allowing a collector to trace where his coin has been in the past!

The swastikas that you see were just another chopmark. The swastika symbol has been used for hundreds of years before it was used as a symbol of hate.

this is so cool. Ive never heard of chop marks.

The coins portrait looks like a devil after the wear.

Originally Posted by jhinton

Those are indeed chopmarks. When a merchant deemed the coin to be accurate i.e. the correct weight and finess, then the said merchant would stamp the coin with his mark. Coins with a lot of marks such as yours have a lot of history due to the fact that they were used by a lot of different merchants. Some of the chopmarks can even be traced to specific merchants and locations allowing a collector to trace where his coin has been in the past!

The swastikas that you see were just another chopmark. The swastika symbol has been used for hundreds of years before it was used as a symbol of hate.

Thanks. Do they add any value? Or just history?

Mostly just history, but like with anything else, I'm sure there are "chopmark" collectors around who would pay a premium for something like this.

Ok Thanks

ikandiggit is correct. The majority of collectors view chopmarks as damage but there are some who actively collect chopmarked coins. If you tried to sell this coin on ebay, you would get a little more than the silver value for it. I think they are neat especially ones like yours with lots of different marks plainly visible. A lot of the time the marks are worn due to use and past cleanings making them unidentifiable.

What would you pay for something like this. Just asking

what a fascinating looking coin.

Originally Posted by jhinton

The swastikas that you see were just another chopmark. The swastika symbol has been used for hundreds of years before it was used as a symbol of hate.

Thousands of years more like it. The swastika is one of the human race's earliest, most revered symbol for millenia before some psychopathic murdered took a liking to it. I have coins from 300BC, 250AD, 750AD all with swastikas in the design. Even in the 1920's a popular good luck charm produced in the US had a very prominent swastika along with horse shoe, four leaf clover, and other symbols of good fortune.

Originally Posted by 93stang

What would you pay for something like this. Just asking

Are you wanting to know a value or wanting to sell it? If you want to sell it, send me a PM as I would be interested. as far as value just search ebay under completed auctions.

Originally Posted by medoraman

Thousands of years more like it. The swastika is one of the human race's earliest, most revered symbol for millenia before some psychopathic murdered took a liking to it. I have coins from 300BC, 250AD, 750AD all with swastikas in the design. Even in the 1920's a popular good luck charm produced in the US had a very prominent swastika along with horse shoe, four leaf clover, and other symbols of good fortune.

I thought it might have been thousands, but I knew it was at least hundreds...

Originally Posted by jhinton

I thought it might have been thousands, but I knew it was at least hundreds...

Its all good man, we just have different collecting perspectives. I just know this since I have examples of these in my collections.

Here is a recent article on chop marks by Ron Guth on the PCGS Blog:

http://www.pcgsblog.com/ron-guth/news/whats-a-chop-mark