Mexico 8 Reales 1814 With Wrong Assayer

The coin may be solid silver but it is also without a doubt a counterfeit.

The FH assayer is known to exist as a debased silver counterfeit. But this die pair is not documented in our study. The dark streak is very common on counterfeits as is the "odd tone".

The problem with the die is that it uses the wrong letter and number fonts for Mexico City in 1814.

Can NOT be genuine. -

But if it is for sale let me know!

dosmundos The short answer is YES.

There are several writers who have theorized that counterfeiters made these kinds of mistakes "intentionally" to identify their coins. That makes some sense if they feared getting them back.

So I think debased counterfeits are most likely as having used intentionally incorrect assayer initials. The full weight silver coins would have been taken back only as bullion so identification of those is not as critical.

Are there multiple die pairs - absolutely. Many dates have repeated die pairs with identical "errors".

On just Class 1 counterfeits FH appears with Mo in the three different years 0781 (yes ZERO 781 as if that was ever a real date on a coin) it is like a coin dated BC. There are three 1811's, and one 1817. All of these are debased. There are a bunch of fantasy combinations in addition to initial combinations used in the wrong years.

Once you get into Classes 2 and 3 there are more fantasy coins of course,