Mexico Pillar / Columnaria 8-Reales. Mo 1757 MM is the great Pretender. This was my very first columnaria that I bought in a flea market more than three & a half decades ago. As a naive teenager, never knew about counterfeits back then. I just love the design features. In between the years were up and down, hiatus of interest spanning years or decade at times, but still Columnarias were/are my preference. Mo 1578 MM is a more recent pick. The difference between it and the Pretender is striking. Note of the third face of the coin -- the rim. True Pillars would have the overlaps. On 1758, there's the counter-turn at the overlap.
Hope you didn't get stung too badly when you bought the "pretender" (fake) in your younger days. Still, it's kind of cool you kept it, for educational purposes, if nothing else. I have owned three. The first was polished within an inch of its life, to the point that it looked fake, even if it was real. I have no images of it. The second was this PCGS AU50, which I later parted company with. The third, and the current example in my collection, is this NGC XF40. While it's ten grade points lower than the previous coin above, it's an earlier date and I like the look of it.
PS- it appears you just returned after a 15-year hiatus? Or have you just been a silent lurker all that time? Welcome back.
Just how many classic shows do you know about? I've seen you recently mention several of them. I guess I might have a teammate when I go to shove the rubber hose up the nose of the counterfeiter who made that 1758.
Nice observation! I got "depressed" when I found out about my counterfeits, about 4-6 of my stash . Ebay trap! Went into something contemporary for a while, but eventually lost interest. I just recently took serious note of my rare coin collections a few months ago, when some IRL friends also dove into coin collecting, albeit of different interest. I have added a few Spanish colonials but nothing so serious. I'm having the better of my collections gradually slabbed. My first set has returned, and has 'Details' results.