Hey all, first post here - glad I found this forum! I recently picked up a G-VG Brazilian 960 Reis piece date 1817, my first of the type, and set about learning about it. A lot has been written about these coins struck over Mexico 8 Reales, but the one I acquired appears to be struck over a British trade dollar of George III. See the obverse, (I presume crown side is obverse?) - half the British coat of arms is visible diagonally across the Portuguese coat of arms: And the reverse - just a bit of Georgie's hairline is visible on the leftmost portion of the cross: The date of the host coin is sadly so thoroughly worn off as to be invisible even under a microscope. My question is if anyone knows how unusual it is for a British dollar to host one of these coins, and if there's anything else I might be able to divine about the specific age/type of the host?
I see a 90 degee angle, like the corner of a rectangle on the obverse. I think it's just an 8 reales underneath.
Ha, jgenn, I look at comparison photos and you're obviously right. I think the extra wear on the coin led my imagination astray, but that right angle of the Spanish coat of arms is totally there, as opposed to the curved lines of the English trade dollar. This makes way more sense than what I thought I saw, so I consider this somewhat embarrassing mystery resolved. Still wish I could see the date of the host coin, but that's what you get with a coin of this grade.
I believe if you look hard enough under the loupe, you will be able to find the date on it. There was this one overstruck Russian coin that I have - it was overstruck over a Swedish 1 ore coin which I had trouble identifying the year. Forgot about it and then a few years down the road, looked at it from a different angle and managed to identify it. Still - it's a pretty neat overstruck coin. I'm a fan of overstruck coins!
