Hi everyone, I'm not well versed in world coinage but I was looking through a bag of old world coins I've had for a long time and found an 1843 Mexico City 8 Reales. Love the coin, but I looked it up in a reference book covering Spanish Colonial and early Mexican coins and the variety I have is not listed...The only assayer's initials shown for 1843 are M.M., while my coin is M.L. The book seemed to list the various assayers for any given year very thoroughly so I was surprised to not be able to find an M.L. for 1843. Does anyone know if this is a common assayer's mark for that year? Thanks!
According to my references, the assayer ML is found only up to 1842 for Mexico City. The initials MM can also be found for 1842. The year 1843 has only MM listed. It is possible that the former assayer did some additional work in 1843, but oversaw very few coins and thus no examples have yet been listed. This would seem very unlikely, since it is apparent that MM took over from ML during 1842. If possible could you post pictures of the coin.
I found much the same information. By looking through the years listed in that book it looks like the assayers bounced back and forth from year to year, so I guess anything is possible. I checked the coin again and it's definitely an 1843 Mexico City 8 Reales with M.L.'s initials. I'll get a picture up soon.
Well, all I can add is that the strike is better than is normal for the date. I see some issue with the pellet and the 1 to the right of the L, but can't make out what it might be. But the L is clear, as is the 3. The photo resolution is not enough for me to tell whether there may have been an alteration, or if the coin is a fake. You might try an Internet seach to see if you can hunt one down. My best reference for these coins is from 1997, called Resplandores by Dunigan and Parker.
I checked with Resplandores, the Bible of the Cap and Rays 8R series and there is no Mexico City mint with M.L for that date. It's likely a fake. Did you weigh it?
Thanks for looking at it guys. I guess I'll have to start doing research on this particular coin. I didn't weigh it (how much should it weigh?) but I have a couple others and it looks very similar to those. I can't see any indication of an alteration. What diagnostics would I use to determine if it's a fake? The dot and 1 are very weakly struck but do not appear to have been altered. Does anyone know who M.M. and M.L. were?
The picture needs to be larger for me to tell. But Mexico City is a M with a little O over top of it. MM and ML are the assayers that inspect the silver for content. They get their initials on the coins because of that. I doubt that one is fake but you never know. The older ones are faked much more.
The coin should weight about 27 grams. More than about 5% off that means it is highly suspect. Both assayers MM and ML are unknown.
Thanks for the additional info! I'll have to try to find a way to weigh the coin. It does pass the "ring test," so I do believe it's silver. I haven't been able to find any information online about this coin but it has definitely piqued my interest! I may just start a little collection of my own. If anyone out there has anything they may be able to add about this coin I'd be happy to hear it!
