Three Fake 8 Reales, 2 With Odd Cross Marks - Any Information Appreciated

Brummagem Is your name a reference to Birmingham, England?

The coins are cast copies. They appear to be composed of some sort of bronze or perhaps brass. The mold impressions are identical and I suspect that on the third the mold was modified to remove the cross impressions. I do not believe the cross represents an addition to the mold stamp itself.

Why they were made is a wide open question.

Religious talismans may be one simple answer - similar in nature to the Anting-Anting of the Philippines. Perhaps a genuine silver dollar with a cross engraved on it was perceived as a good luck charm by some people in South America. As in the case of the Philippines, as the custom spread silver dollars were viewed as too costly so a cast replica was substituted.

Welcome to the forum

I too have a love of counterfeits. I began because I picked a Henning nickel out of change in 1960 and was fascinated by it. It was the 1944 no P Jefferson 5 cent coin. I also saw that it was footnoted in the Red Book that began my fascination with non genuine coins.

I own perhaps 10,000 counterfeit coins now although I have never counted them all. I specifically focus on the circulating counterfeits found in John L. Riddell's book "Monograph of the Silver Dollar, Good and Bad" published in 1845. I think they are much more interesting than any genuine coins.

My first book was "Counterfeit Portrait Eight-Reales, the Un-real Reales. I am working on volume 2 in my un-real reales series, the Cap and Ray counterfeit dollars.

If you have any of those in your collection I would be interested in seeing them. I have 3,600 plus as of last count but I run into new examples all the time.

I really like your name - it is subtle unless you understand the topic. I am from an area called by some specialists the "Birmingham of the US" (the area of SE Mass and NE Rhode Island that was home to counterfeiters since the colonial era.

What part of the US do you hail from and what if any are your specific interests in counterfeiting/forgery.

Hope to speak more later.