1839/7 Central American Republic (Aka Guatemala) 8 Reales Question

Yes I see it, it's quite common for 17-19th Century coins to not be perfectly round.

I think it's because they used casts instead of cutting out planchets today. Doesn't look like damage to me.

Casting of planchets was not at all common in most of the Republican mints that continued after the Spanish mints closed (or were taken over). Honduras is a notable exception where casting seems to have taken hold.

The normal process (in the CAR) was to roll and laminate a silver strip from small ingots called fillets. The strip was just over one coin in width and could be 6 -10 coins long. These were punched in a rough press - that if worn produced out of round blanks. If the planchets were struck in a screw press BEFORE the edge design was applied (which does vary in some Republican mints) more distortion could appear.

The coin in question was most likely distorted for the two preceding reasons. Mints tended to replace peripheral equipment like blanking presses only when absolutely necessary.

I see no problem with the coin not being exactly round. As always check the edge for silver shaving. That practice was rampant.

Mister Kairu One other thing you should be aware of - some (not many) shavers actually attempted to add details back onto the edge by hand or crude punch. So in the area that is out of round check each segment to see if there is or is not a match with the segments on the "rounder" portion of the edge. In my book I show photos of a portrait 8R where the shavers did exactly what I am referring to. They did it to cover an edge theft.