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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gnomey, post: 1944645, member: 71005&quot;]Hello all.&nbsp; I have had something on my mind for a while, but being new to this forum, I wanted to get a feel for others&#039; opinions on a matter.</p><p><br /></p><p>Chopmarks.&nbsp; I *LOVE* them on a coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>I am very new to graded coins and US coins at that.&nbsp; However, for the last 5 years (when I started collecting), I have been into world coins.&nbsp; I love all kinds of silver world coins, and typically I tend to gravitate towards silver coins from the 1600&#039;s-the 1800&#039;s.&nbsp; Now, my collections is nowhere near the caliber that I imagine some member&#039;s collections are, but it&#039;s mine and I love it. </p><p><br /></p><p>I specifically got interested in Mexican coinage, which is convenient because we seem to have a nice surplus of it here in Texas.&nbsp; Specifically, I discovered the 8 Reales coins and my battleship was sunk.</p><p><br /></p><p>After buying 10 or so 8 Reales coins, I realized many had symbols &quot;punched&quot; or &quot;stamped&quot; into them.&nbsp; I learned about the chop-mark.&nbsp; If my understanding is correct, merchants all across the world, and primarily in Asia, would have their own seals or symbols unique to them, which they would use to test coins.&nbsp; Again, if I am correct, they would use a hammer and a punch or stamp to strike the coin, leaving their unique mark on the coins, and by listening for a certain pitched ring, they could tell that the coin was genuine.&nbsp; If they or a merchant in a neighboring village recognized the mark on a coin from a merchant he knew, he also knew the coins(s) were &quot;safe.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp; If I am mistaken, please correct me.</p><p><br /></p><p>So I found this marking of coins to be fascinating by historical standards personally.&nbsp; I then sought to purchase &quot;attractively chop-marked&quot; 8 reales coins for my collection.&nbsp; In doing this and learning about the coins, I also found that many collectors deemed the coins &quot;numismatically-flawed&quot; and many did not share my fascination with such examples.</p><p><br /></p><p>In summary, as I am looking at my collection this evening, I wanted to just see what others out there thought.&nbsp; Also, If I am ill-informed about the use of chop-marking, please feel free to correct me.&nbsp; Thanks for reading and replying!![ATTACH=full]338339[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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