Honduras, 2 Reales, 1847

In my new book in the Foreign Section (due out in and around 11/2016) I tear apart the infamous 1833 2R issue in terms of its metallurgy. This field is wide open to the question - which are contemporary counterfeits and which are debased silver regal issues? - Is there an overlap? Note on this 1850 4R clearly and probably mercuric silvering over a copper host coin. Regal or contemporary circulating counterfeit. There is the Belleville, NJ importation factor via the Julia Purdy newspaper article discovery? Belleville, NJ? <VVVBG>.

JPL

The apparently "regal" 1833 is easy to distinguish from the counterfeits, whether the latter be silver-washed or bare. The style elements are rather different... the tree itself is the easiest comparison point. Note that one also has the regal 1832 issue to use as a reference point.

The 1850 4R just posted:
1849-51 or 52 4R out there tend to be better than the following mid-1850s issues, and XF or so pieces with a decent amount of silvering can be found (the 1849 Jay Kr. posted above is a good example). This piece is not to that level, clearly, and the reverse is kind of schmeggy (as made), but the obverse is presentable and overall, it's certainly not the worst of its type out there.

"Currently based on weight or if underweight..."

John, be careful about applying that to the (1832-)1833 Hond. 2R... At least for the preceding issues, represented by the fairly plentiful 1824 NG and (also Honduras-minted, just a few years earlier) 1831 TF CAR-issue 2 Reales, I've found that the observed weights have varied... Most that I have are in the high 5.x gram range (say, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8)... factoring wear, that would only yield low 6._ grams at most, thus under colonial standard (note that I haven't done any specific gravity who knows about the purity of the silver). I do recall maybe a couple being closer to colonial standard... then, curiously, I do have one CAR 2R piece that is actually appreciably overweight at (from memory) about 7.1 grams... not sure what to make of that.

Note too that Krause (at least my older edition) doesn't actually quote a prescribed weight for the regal 1833... just notes .333 (which does seem about correct visually). I haven't weighed the few examples I have (a couple are slabbed, anyway).

Point being, I would say that you need to verify weights on extant regal 1832-33 examples if you intend to use that as a comparison point... and getting a decent sample size may be challenging.

Jay Kris. (whose Facebook page is a great reference for the C.A.R.-style coinage) would probably know best... any thoughts?