1792 Charles IV Pillar Dollar Authenticity And Grade

Also I'm curious if not a bit concerned about the tight parallel lines running along the reverse diagonally and have no idea what caused them.

Thank you, John1. I used a Canon PowerShot ELPH115 IS for these photos. I've enjoyed this 16mp point-and-shoot camara for several years now after having lugged around an all metal and glass Pentax Spotmatic SLR film rig for more than a decade while learning the finer points of photography as a hobby.

I believe looking at bust side, the overlaps are in the areas of 1-3 o'clock position, and partly under the scratches between 7-9 o'clock.

I believe the coin is one of the numerous made for China "Restrikes" that were made of silver over 85% pure and of correct weight. The diagonal marks are typical of those usually seen on this class of coin. These are also the variety that test as containing less than 0.2% of gold. These coins with very little gold can not have been made in Mexico City before 1850 - just NOT possible.

The S.G. of the two 900 fine coins is a bit high at 10.47 and 10.48 but they are consistent one with the other. The third coin SG = 10.38 if done at the same time and in the same way on the same apparatus indicates a difference of about the expected order of magnitude for one of the made for China restrikes. They were on average 85% - 90% silver. The reason they had to be over 85% was that they had to pass SG testing by the Chinese which was limited by the scale capability to 10 points (5 points either side of 900 fine).

Since this coin fits the parameters of a Chines trade coin based on visual clues and seems of have a specific gravity that supports the same contention - I would assign it to Class 2 Contemporary Circulating Silver Counterfeit. The XRF test would most likely confirm this result since there are more post 1850 survivors of the class than pre-1850 survivors.

XRF is the next test I suggest if you want to be sure.

Thank you, Swamperbob for the reply. I've spent most of the last several days reading threads back to 2008 on everything related to these coins and all of your ultra detailed responses. So much information to absorb! I'm going to visit a few coin and jewelry shops in my area to see if I can find a decent priced xrf test for Au content.

My first reaction is that the silver purity is much higher than might be expected, and out of line with your previous specific gravity measurement. I'm not sure as to what conclusion to draw, though, other than it certainly wasn't struck in 1792.