:hail:I have a necklace with a dos peso coin dated 1945 in a bezel. How do I know whether or not it's a restrike?
Very simple, you can't and they are all considered restrikes. Even if you could they are onlyworth bullion either way.
These Mexican 2 pesos used to be a very popular small bullion coin before fractional U.S. and Krugs were introduced. Apart from investors and collectors, jewellers use these in ear-rings, rings, and necklaces where their small size, and low weight made them ideal. They were struck from 1919 to 1947, the 1945 date is most abundant and is considered, like Condor mentioned, to be a re-strike from 1948. Krause shows 1948 as having been minted, but it is likely that these were struck with 1945 or other back-dates. I think they were still strinking 1945s up until the early 1980's. I don't know of any way to tell original strikes from restrikes and it may be possible that none were struck in 1945 but, were all struck in 1948. There are no known die variations that I am aware of and there is very little info. on/from Mexican mint production documents outside of the questionable info provided in the Krause reference. The current melt is approx $40-$50. Here are the specs: Gold Content = .0482 oz Dia. = 12.85mm Weight = 1.666g .900 fineness
