Thoughts On This One: Peru 8 Reales 1823 M- Jp

Interesting - note the XRF scan he performs registering the trace gold and lead. Seems OK to me ... see also the XRF on the gold nugget where silver must always be present with gold. How much ... it depends.

I assume you bought it ... looks OK. As far as Material Analysis goes ...

JPL

I am not overly familiar with the early issues of Peru as a republic so my remarks should be taken on that light.

First the easy issue - were the edges of these coins actually vertically reeded? Most of the transitional issues from the young republics adopted the Spanish minting methods left behind. I would expect 2 things as a result. First the edge should have been applied as a first step using a two flat bar edging mill (like a Castang machine). Second the casting apparatus leaves two opposing overlaps in the design no matter what that design is. The laps should be 180 degrees apart and must be identical in length. Are laps present?

Someone more familiar with the Lima mint may be able to pin point the year when a closed collar steam press was first used.

Second is the issue of XRF. I agree with John that gold is the must have trace for Mexico City. However, Bolivia and Peru mined different intrusions of silver bearing veins. My recent research (developed in part as a result of questions about my book) indicate that there are other marker trace contaminants that should be seen for Lima.

At this point I would have to ask what the XRF testing apparatus was capable of detecting? It says precious metals detector and the piece parts add up to 100% so there is no place remaining for the 0.2% marker I am looking for.

I checked the web site for the manufacturer and the results were vague at best.

I just wrote to Olympus in Waltham to see if the elements I am looking for are within their standard spectrum of analysis for the GoldXpert.