Help To Identify Spanish Coin

The piece is a cast REPLICA of a Potosi mint (current Bolivia) 8 Reales coin... The assayer mark is not present (due to the imperfect strike of the coin they copied for this replica), but from style elements it's probably an assayer "R" piece dating to right around 1605-1613 (give or take a year on the front end of that). I happen to have a picture of another specimen of this replica. Note that these "cob" coins were hand-struck on hand-cut planchets... no two will ever be exactly alike in terms of the exact impression of detail on the same exact shape of planchet. See below... Given the exact era of the coin, and its general "look" (like it was cast from a well-preserved sea-salvage example), this is almost certainly intended to be an Atocha replica coin.

Note that you should be able to at least strongly suspect that this piece is a cast copy without seeing its "twin". First, the piece shows very little substantial "corrosion", yet it's over 8 grams underweight. In terms of the surfaces, the cross side in particular shows pores typical of casting, plus there's roughness in the protected areas. And yes, with experience you CAN (at least some of the time) tell the difference between sea-porosity and casting porosity... even on a piece that is cast FROM a sea-salvage coin. The pores on a cast tend to be more random/discrete, caused by air bubbling when the cast forms.

There may or may not be some visible remnants of a casting seam along the edge, depending on how well they tried to conceal it.

Unfortunately, since plenty more people out there suck, it matters naught whether one piece gets tagged...:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SHIPWRECK-8...170762586793
"Grandpa's estate" strikes again. Much like the ubiquitous 1736 Lima 8 Escudo replica, specimens of this blasted piece abound. Basically a tourist replica of an Atocha-type 8R, smart a$$es like to throw them on the beach along the "Treasure Coast" and other similar areas to mess with the metal detectorists.... FYI, this is imitating a Mexico 8R, D over F, which dates to 1618, possibly 1619...... The piece is not convincing at all, with molten surfaces and semi-cartoonish detail... and and yet it brought over $150. Always boggles the mind... LEARN before you BUY!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1760-Mexica...120841558435
A tourist shop replica that has been around for 30+ years (my Dad got one down south back in the 70's... along with one of those 1736 Lima 8E!)... Aside from generally looking like a cast, this replica is readily IDed by the conspicuous planchet crack to the rim at 3:00. The person even MENTIONS "as-is" in the listing, that they believe it's a counterfeit (though calling it a "collectible counterfeit" is deceptive, unless of course you enjoy collecting tourist shop replicas). So, what exactly do people think they're getting here? Anybody who would be willing to drop nearly 2 bills on an interesting "contemporary forgery" would clearly know better. I don't get it...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330669973329
Atocha-type replica Potosi 8R. This needs no comment, it's so obviously a cast replica/fake... What's amusing about this piece is that the guy who ended up buying it, amusingly enough, is the jerk who buys raw (no papers) cobs which are are usually salvaged-looking, then cranks out a basement laser-printer cert (using a scanned "real" cert as his template) applying the most logical shipwreck pedigree (at least to him) for what the coin is. He's done 1715 Fleet, Vliegenthart, Consolacion, Maravillas (he likes Maravillas)... So, look for this one on ebay soon with a cert attributing it whatever wreck he dreams up, resting in a Coin World type holder with a printed tag from his basement "grading service". He gets g remarkable turnaround time for submissions...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SPAIN-SILVE...110809874999
1657 Mex 8R - known Chinese fake. Some of the usual suspects listed with it...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FELIPE-IV-1...270879161884
1657 Mex 8R - a DIFFERENT Asian fake. Had this on my suspect list from a while back (odd chopmarks, among other things); noted it as being from a Philippine seller of other definite fakes. I believe this is a 2nd specimen, based on some toning spots, though it's not impossible this could be the same exact piece (current seller bought it from the Philippines about 2 yrs ago). Either way, it's almost certainly a fake.