Hi all I bought this coin on MA-Shops from a dealer in Germany. The dealer seems to be well experienced and reputable. However, as with all 8 Reales I buy, I wanted to get some views on whether this coin looks legit. Weight is 26.99, and Specific Gravity is 10.27. Here is a photo of the obv and rev of the coin, along with some shots of the edge on opposing sides. Thoughts?
Thanks, AussieCollector, for presenting your 8 reales in a way that highlights the typical range of diagnostics that one should be aware of. Too many collectors only show pictures of the coin faces and expect a useful answer. The weight is reasonable. The specific gravity might be within range -- it is not easy to get very accurate results without a highly accurate scale and I don't know your margin of error. If I remember correctly, a 90/10 alloy of silver/copper should be 10.31. I don't see any obvious issues with the obverse and reverse designs. It looks like normal adjustment marks across Fernando's face. To bad about the 'X' in the field near his chin, though. The edge design looks correct and the overlaps appear in the correct orientation to each other however the length of the overlaps do not appear to match, I can see one segment overlap in the first edge picture and three in the second. The parallel die mill would cause the length of overlap to match exactly. I think I can see evidence that the obverse/reverse was struck after the edge was milled. Evidence to the contrary would indicate a counterfeit. I have a concern about the overlap length -- perhaps it's correct and just not visible from the photograph. The specific gravity is slightly low and might provide the necessary margin for a counterfeit to be profitable. On the whole, I would guess genuine but it could be a well made counterfeit. Any third party grading service, however, would call this genuine -- they focus more on grading than a determination of authenticity. Get a copy of "Counterfeit Portrait Eight-Reales: The Un-Real Reales" by Gurney, Nichols and Lorenzo for even more diagnostics to look for as well as an explanation on why the demand for 8 reales in China, above other silver trade dollars, caused a proliferation of 8 reales counterfeits.
Thanks for your responses everyone. I'm glad that it looks ok, despite some potential question marks. I mainly posted it because I didn't know what the edge design was supposed to look like. I have 8 Reales cobs, and one from 1752 (which is the floral design) so I was unsure about this one. And yes, it does look like it has been cleaned over and over again. A real pity about what that did to the shield. I can't really speak for the overlap per se (except to note looking at the coin that I can see more overlapping length than one link on the side you speak of). I can speak for the SG however. As mentioned above I have 8 Reales cob varieties, as well as a milled coin (along with French and Dutch crown-sized coins) and I have found my scales are not accurate enough to get a precise SG and that 10.27 is exactly what I would expect when I measure on my scales.
