I'm curious what you all think about this one. It weighs 26.5 grams and appears to have the right diameter (39 mm), though it is heavily worn. The edge has a normal pattern, it seems (I may post it later). I bought it from a dealer who claims to be trained in detecting counterfeit coins. I'm curious if anything about this apparently worn coin seems off.
Want to see some cool coins? http://articulo.mercadolibre.cl/MLC-407683537-1-peso-chile-independiente-1834-ij-_JM http://articulo.mercadolibre.cl/MLC-407683243-8-reales-santiago-1808-vf-_JM http://articulo.mercadolibre.cl/MLC-407683305-8-reales-santiago-1796xf-_JM http://articulo.mercadolibre.cl/MLC-405979442-8-escudos-1841-tipo-dos-banderas-vf-rarisimo-_JM http://articulo.mercadolibre.cl/MLC-407715810-prueba-8-escudos-1836-en-cobre-au-_JM
Thanks, Derick and Raymond. I picked that up recently on eBay for $50 total. I think I have a good intuition for weeding out suspicious sellers. I'm glad I picked that one up. While I lean toward perfectionism normally, I must say the chop marks do not bother me an iota. My concern was that it weighs 26.5 grams, but I suppose on a heavily worn coin it may be normal.
It looks like a real nice coin to me. I love the chop marks on it. It must have spent some time over in the orient. $50 bucks total is a steal for that coin!
I love colonial 8 reales too, but still looking for that one with original mint luster. Yesterday, I bought a specimen of 1814 960 reis struck over a Santiago 1813 8 reales. Cannot wait to see it. Anyway, keep on collecting these!
One have to take extreme care when buying reales with assayer DA and FJ from Santiago. The fakes out of China are quite good.
Yeah, I was reading up on threads about the fakes and just learned how widespread they are. The 8 reales coins are a major target because they were a global currency for a long time. This thread made my day though: it feels good knowing you are holding onto a coin that people in the French Revolution might have killed for in their day.
It looks OK to me too. Nice original Ocho Reales. Derick, some nice coins at mercadolibre. Interestingly, that 1834 Volcano is fairly common with the Philippines C/S. Without it, it is very rare.
Glad you pointed that out, was not sure about the counterstamp. Thank you. The seller is from the Mexican coin company. They have some nice coins and I am happy with the ones I did buy. I also bought the copper pattern, reasonable price I believe.
Looks OK to me but the edge is a good sign. Based on how they apply the edge design there should be a circle and square overlap 180* apart for this overlap. There are Sheffield contemporary counterfeits and other counterfeits that weigh exactly at 26.5 grams. There will be a book out next year on these Portrait 8 Reale contemporary counterfeits through the American Numismatic Society explaining all these items. Silver in its most oxidized state is black - this looks real but check the edge overlap criteria for this circle/square edge device. John Lorenzo United States
Nice information you have received here. I agree the coin looks real, just a kind of funky cleaning. Just as a background, the most commonly faked 8 reales are the pillar dollars, then this one, then newer ones. I am always very, very cautious with pillar dollars, they have been faked so dang much, for so dang long.
Wow, this is a thread going a few months back and I am surprised to find it still active. To be honest, this is one of the last Spanish 8 reales I have bought (though I have bought post-colonial Peruvian 8 reales recently), because, like others, I am wary of counterfeits. I sold another one I bought because it weighed too low for my comfort (25.8-9 grams), though it was declared genuine by an experienced member here. I also suspect these coins had much greater weight variance than commonly believed. This seems like common sense to me, since the technology back then was not what it is today. But I won't bother debating this point, since I know some members here are firm on their stance on the grams. Regarding this particular coin: I have it stashed away, and do think about it on occasion as one of my older coins. For $50 it was a bargain. eBay has worked out pretty well for me, overall.
There are 26.5 gram Sheffield contemporary counterfeit 8 Reales in Third Party holders made in Birmingham, England at the Tower Mint ... hundreds of them ... but don't worry about this till late 2014. This the purpose of the book ...
