"1832 Do 8 Reales"

For those of you who've never seen this, here's a pretty good webpage on the "Cap & Rays" 8 reales - a worthwhile primer on the genre even if nowhere near so comprehensive as Resplandores.

See: http://exonumismatics.com/mex/Cap-a...ys.html#fake

Aside from general information, there's a gallery of contemporary counterfeits there, and I've taken the liberty of reproducing here in a larger size the image of the one among those that most interests me. It's supposedly a Riddell No. 365, which in his monograph he described as having been rendered in a "perfect, or nearly so" manner. My recollection is that during this period Durango was somewhat notorious for lax security with respect to dies, and I suspect this specimen is representative of the result of that. Altough Riddell describes his example as made from a flan debased to 31% purity, this specimen is apparently plated base metal, so in that regard it seems more akin to No. 366, the difference being that like No. 365 it looks to be a dead ringer for the genuine article as struck with the "European" style dies then in use at this particular mint, so early on it ought to have been able to be passed into circulation without difficulty.