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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;satootoko, post: 19188, member: 669&quot;]Well, it looks like I got here before Doug, so I&#039;ll just jump right in. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie11" alt=":rolleyes:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> Right on!&nbsp; You have a Spanish 8 Reales, also known as a Pillar Dollar and Pieces of Eight, minted at the famous Mexico City Mint.&nbsp; (Actually the &quot;pieces&quot; refers to the sections into which many of these coins were cut - origin of the slang term &quot;two bits&quot; for a quarter dollar.)</p><p><br /></p><p>It is either KM#106.2 or KM#106.2a, which both carry the same values in Krause.&nbsp; The only difference is that the former is made of .9030 silver and the latter is only .8960, so its melt value is about 4¢ less. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>The obverse legend translates as &quot;Charles III by the Grace of God&quot; and the reverse as &quot;King of Spain and India&quot;, followed by the mint mark (small o over M), denomination, and the initials of the Mintmasters, Francisco Araace Cobos and Mariano Rodriguez.&nbsp; Krause lists no mintage figures, but undoubtedly there were lots and lots of them, as the Mexico City Mint was very prolific.</p><p><br /></p><p>Value in the 18th Century 3rd Ed. for is $25 VG, $40 F, and up to $150 XF. The Spanish 8 Reales was one of the silver coins widely circulated throughout Asia in the 18th and 19th Centuries, where they were treated as bullion rather than currency, and traded based on weight.&nbsp; The mark at the nape of the neck is definitely what is known as a &quot;chopmark&quot;, placed there by some merchant (probably Chinese) as an authentication of its value.&nbsp; The other marks are very probably also chops.&nbsp; It is not unusual to find a trade dollar (small &quot;t&quot; to include the entire mix of coins serving that function) with a dozen or more chops from different merchants who handled it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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