An alleged Spanish Colonial 8 Reales for sale on eBay. I'm not expert, but is this fake? I thought the coin should feature the portrait of the king , or emperor - or whoever is in power? It's in nice shape. http://cgi.ebay.com/1770-MEXICO-SPA...620?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb4e8f14c Since I have this suspicion that 99% of anything coming from Hong Kong is an immediate fake, I'll refrain from bidding, but I would like to report the seller to eBay if this is fake. I can't stand these idiots constantly trying to screw over the people they count on being uneducated.
That is the proper design for a 1770 8 reales. The portrait 8 reales was first minted in 1772. However, saying that, I can't say offhand if that particular coin is real of fake. I will say that the extremely weak letter T on the obverse, and the extremely weak ET on the reverse, on an otherwise well-struck piece, would give me cause for concern. I will also say that the o above the M at 8:00 on the obverse looks wrong, especially when compared with this 8 reales from the same year and mint: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/29/anversoy.jpg/
