Cuidado. Un falso chile 1850 8 reales a veces se venden como "piefort" This coin does not exist and was only minted as KM 96.2 in 1848 and 1849. An example I encountered this week in a coin dealership in Santiago. It seems these are made from various metals including copper and silver and are making it into the market. They are being sold on the internet.
Thanks for the head up. One must always be careful when dealing with scarce coins, particularly when a date is unlisted. I hope you didn't pay 'real' money for it. Early Chilean coins have always been scarce, and they started to become popular with collectors in the 1990's. After that the prices rapidly increased. The coin counterfeiters saw a business opportunity here and this accounts for the many fakes of chilean colonial coins as well as early republican issues. I myself bought a fake during a visit to chile in the early 90's (Valdivia 1 real) at a reputable shop in Providencia btw.
It is silver. I did not buy it, but wanted to. Took the picture and checked it out first. The seller wanted 400 US$ for it.
