Neat Counterfeit 1845 Mexico 8 Reals

The date of 1845 puts this one just outside the Riddell range of dates. The type is likely post Civil War (ca 1860 or later) based on the way it appears to have been made. I agree with John that it is too late for and does not resemble Sheffield Plate.

It could be an electroplate or even a thin silver amalgam - however, I suspect something else might be the case because of the rest of the surface. The coin looks like one of the stripped cores that was thrown away after being stripped of the silver coating using electro-chemical means. These "cores" were first placed on the market shortly after they were discovered in the mid 1990's. At the time I bought 100 of them from the person who discovered them and they are characterized by a similar look - the gray pasty area and the eroded copper. I have yet to get an XRF of one of the type but I plan to before my next planned book. I suspect there was an alternative form of plating with a material that resembled silver but was not removed as actual silver would have been.

Nice coin though. In my opinion given the choice between this coin and a genuine 1845 Go 8R in this same condition - you got the BETTER of the deal.

Normic67 A counterfeit with "wear" is actually rather normal. A counterfeiter wants his coins to look worn but not badly worn so that no attention is drawn to the coin at all. So the dies are made at times without deep details. The wear and toning is artificial. Stories abound about how to do this - one of the most common is burying the coin in horse manure for a period of time.

I have never tried that - I have severe allergies to horses.