Counterfeit 1747 MO Mf Eight Reales - Numismatic Forgery

Here is another seller on ebay that is engaged in fraud. He is a re-seller of materials that come from Spain from one of the forgery rings that objected to the watch group activities and terminations. The first coin has a pair of very obvious tells. The ebay auction number of the first auction is 331771392193. The coin purports to be a 1747 Pillar 8 reale. The coin is a recently made forgery. There is a clear seam within the dentils on the date side that runs from the 1 in the date to the second mint mark. That seam is impossible on a screw press strike. It is a feature associated with a die face that is too small for the size of the planchet. The die was made as a copy of a coin. All screw press strikes involved a die face that is several mm's larger than the planchet diameter. This is from the auction.


In addition the coin is counterstamped with an infamous counterstamp. In 1834 Portugal authorized a stamp to be applied to all Spanish colonial coins in circulation to establish their value at 870 reis. In this case, the problem is the Cud on the left side of the stamp. This broken punch is a modern forgery used on dozens of coins that came originally from the same Spanish forgery ring.

Here is the stamp - the arrow shows the location of the Cud that identifies the fake.


This same stamp appears on three recent auctions by the same seller:

1744 MEXICO SPANISH SILVER 8 REALES PILLAR DOLLAR COIN WITH COUNTERSTAMP (#331759917018) sold for $209.49.

1748 MEXICO SPANISH SILVER 8 REALES PILLAR DOLLAR COIN WITH COUNTERSTAMP (#331764472302) sold for $176.50.

1738 MEXICO SPANISH SILVER 8 REALES PILLAR DOLLAR COIN WITH COUNTERSTAMP (#331756742816) sold for $ 215.50.

The seller also has another numismatic forgery. The 1737 auction number 331771183238 is also a modern numismatic forgery - the coin has a poor edge design which does not have appropriate overlaps. Here is a picture that identifies the problem to anyone familiar with the edging apparatus used by Spain. The star marks a prominent half segment indicating an overlap position. The line bisecting the coin should point to an identical overlap but it does not. There are many other markers but for people familiar with pillar dollars - this is a no brainer.



All of the auctions should be terminated. The seller should receive a suspension.

At this point the committee used to contact the buyers of known forgeries and then flag them for potential re-sale violations down the road.