1816 MO 8 Reales

Beautiful piece, very real to me.

There are a few things to consider.

First how accurate was the scale? A reading of 10.4 accurate to one place is not good. The equivalent for that is 92-95% silver which is too high. If it is accurate to two places it is much worse.

That said it is unlikely that this would be a Class 2 silver counterfeit. There was no incentive to make them.

The point that the issue is wartime is better to consider as an answer. I have read an early reference that indicated that during the war silver gold parting was not always done even at Mexico City. It is possible that the high density could be the result of a higher than normal content of gold combined with a slightly imprecise SG.

The edge certainly looks horrible - the overlap is exceptionally long perhaps due to a very large burr on the edge that was filed off crudely. The laps are opposed. The circles are not all well done but I do not see any that I would call square except on the bottom side which is often due to strike compression. I see enough under the edge design details to wonder if the edge was applied twice. Neither impression was deep enough to cover the burr but running the coin through the edge twice could account for the long apparent overlap and the adjacent edge damage.