Ok fellow coin peeps. I just bought a 1796 pieces of 8 reale off of ebay, and it has a 7 day return policy. And I want your opinions on authenticity, value, and grade.
BTW what is the weight and diameter of these supposed to weigh so I can take it to get it weighed when it comes in?
Is that a chop mark on the chest? Graffitti X on the reverse. Did you get a deal on it? I don't know much about these coins I admit, but I'd own it if I could.
It depends on what a deal is. I know next to nothing about these coins. Stupid impulse buys... And I think they are chop marks. But I am not really sure what chop marks are. lol
Chop Marks "When people brought foreign coins into China, they were looked on more as being ingots than coins. Chinese experts then took these coins and meticulously weighed them and judged the overall value of the metal using their eyesight and experience. Once they had judged a value for the coin they would place a chop mark on them. This was done by the traders themselves, and chopping soon became a daily part of trading and currency life. Coins were chopped for several reasons." "Each trader had his own chop mark meaning that they could offer a certain guarantee to their customers of the value of the coins. The more trusted a trader or local bank was the more acceptable their chop mark became. The most skilled of assayers would be able to indicate to their customers that they had evaluated the coins, or sycees, that they were handing over and had identified them to be of very high quality. While most chopping was harmless to the coin and, therefore, the silver content it was often necessary for a trader to drill into the coin to be completely sure of it's credence." http://www.coinsandcoincollecting.com/chinese-coins.html
Ok cool Catbert, I am not going to have any money for F.U.N. if I keep this up lol. So what are your opnions on grade and authenticity?
Aight cool. Is there any way to determine who chopmarked the coin, like a data base of chop marks or something? Someone at F.U.N. should be able to tell me if it is real right?
I don't do a lot with portrait reales, but I don't immediately see anything to tell me this one is a fake. There are resources that could possibly help you identify chopmarks such as those on the obverse, but the X on the reverse is graffiti, not a chopmark. It would be good to see a picture of the edge devices, they are very specific for these coins. The weight should be about 27.067g.
based on what I see on this site, I say your's is authentic, http://fao-coins.info/pillar/pillar.html But you have your reverse picture rotated I'll read more and TRY and help you out a little more. You know what I like about you? You are young, a coin collector, and you have actually bought the coins you post. Here's a link to a finished sale for one. http://cgi.ebay.com/SILVER-SPAIN-8-REALES-CAROLUS-III-RARE-1796-AU-COIN_W0QQitemZ310106932587QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item310106932587&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50 just to give you an XF - AU ballpark. although, he does have his auction listing labeled wrong.
I dont much about these coins, but it looks to have been cleaned to me, just my opinion, like I said, dont know much about those. Shawn
Well I don't have that much knowledge about these coins too I would saw it's authentic but the coin looks like it was cleaned. there's a chopmark on the coin and also counter mark.The coin you have is eight reals spanish colonial I don't know the value on these coins so i don't know if you got ripped off or not. The grade I would say about a VF 30 The chop mark i indicated in a rectangular box and the counter mark in a circle.. I no for sure the marks can bring the value up if you know there origen but that's alot of research. I have one coin I don't know how many reals it is but it has a counterstamp on it and I still can't find it's origin. Good luck with that. Jazzcoins Joe
most likely i would not pay that much . bt rather than me shouting ill call :loud: GD is being paged come to planet cointalk there just hold on he should be coming in momentarily
My gut tells me this coin is a fake. The denticles are wrong - way too pointed. Those do not look like any chopmark I have ever seen and I know of no countermark with that design. Lastly, that X on the back, such marks are often used by previous owners to indicate the coin is a fake. Now while none of this is definitive, taken as a whole it is more than enough for me to walk away from such a coin.
The more I have looked at this coin the more I think it is fake. There is doubling on the lower portion of the ribbon the rim is too wide and too narrow in places. The 9 is way to wide ( could be cause by squishing though ) and the x on the back has a different color metal showing through, or maybe it is dirt. I am getting better at this lol. :high5: I just decided to take a gamble on this because my neighbor bought this coin for $200 and thought he got a good deal and his was probably in VG. The first thing I am doing when it comes in is stick a magnet to it, than take it to a jeweler to get it weighed/measure, and then I will take it to F.U.N. and get others opinions on authenticity. And if it is genuine it has undoubtedly been cleaned do to too white of a surface with black in between lettering. It looks like someone used Tarn-X on it because I see no patina that is supposed to be on a 200+ year (silver, I think) coin.