1802 Silver Contemporary Counterfeit 8 Reales, Wrong Assayer

There's no serif on that last digit - it is in fact dated "1809", which of course would be incorrect for Charles IIII. There are more than a few instances of this occurring on contemporary counterfeit bust 8R...

Looking at my saved pics, one of this exact type was on ebay some while back... which means Bob has probably seen 10+ (and probably bought the one I saw!).

Also... I noted on my pic that the piece was said to weigh 25.6g (in comparable condition), so a good bit more than yours... It also has the same worn-out looking reverse (even more so than yours), so that must have been how they came off the line.

The coin is well known to me as you suspected. The coin is a variety listed in Calbeto's Compendium of the 8 Reales where it is number 1897.

It is the 1809 A obverse die with the Mo-FM-001 reverse. Full name: GNL#1809-O: A/R: MoFM-001. The date is actually 1809 and the coin uses a distinctive mint mark with the small superscript shifted left. Another very distinctive feature seen on all A dies is the large die chip touching the King's neck.

The coin uses the wrong King of course and also the wrong assayer. There are several (5 so far) very closely related varieties which appear to use the same portrait all dated 1809 but normally using assayer initials TH. This group of well executed dies actually illustrates the theory that someone had made a counterfeit matrix block. Using punches made from this matrix numerous counterfeit dies were produced. The piece parts of the design all match while placements of the designs (like the o superscript) vary. A second instance is the position of the letters IND. On this die they are not aligned on an arc but rather follow a straight line that moves away from center in a clockwise direction. On the other dies they tend to be radial along an arc. This variety actually uses dies made in the same way dies were prepared in Mexico City but using a counterfeit matrix block.

Composition of the planchets is NOT uniform which points to the likelihood of a large mintage. The best preserved example is a "layered" coin we believe to be a Sheffield Plate with a light color core metal. The light Sheffield cores often using nickel and copper as an alloy are later in date than the dark copper cores.

Highest grade known to exist of this coin is near MS. That is a thin silver plate over a white metal core and of minimal melt value. We believe that the survival of counterfeits can in general be tied to melt value. The higher the melt value the less likely a counterfeit will survive.

The number of coins which we have permission to use photographs of is only three, but at least 4 others have been noted in auctions. It is at this point still known from under 10 copies but we are only starting to flush these coins out of the woodwork.