8 Reale Lima 1753 Some Comments Re- Authenticity Please

to CCF

I don't know but I found another that looks very close to yours with a bit more detail.
Everything looks pretty darn close to me.
Here's a link to more info:
http://www.coinfactswiki.com/wiki/F...38-0115g.jpg
Here's a image I made using that coin and yours for easy comparison.
Your's is on the bottom.

The weight is 26.2 grams

I will try to photograph the edge

I hope it is real for you as well. I wish that somebody who knows more about these will give you better input than I have. Happy birthday!

You coin looks good. The third side (edge) should be nicely "tulipped" and have no other design such as chevrons. Yours has "normal M's" in both mint marks which Gilboy says is a rarity of "S2" meaning he thinks more than 100 and fewer than 250 pieces are extant making it very scarce but just shy of rare meaning fewer than 100 pieces known. The regular mint mark was a combination of letters for LIMA having a dot over the "L" to represent "I" and a crossbar in the "M" to represent "A" giving all in a monogram. 1753 was the year that full production using three mills and six presses got going in high gear. The mint master "J" is Jose Rodriguez Casara.

I sincerely hope Pistareen is right and I was wrong. Good luck on nailing this down.

what weight range should this be ?

A weight of 26.2 grams is fine for the type. These coins, as were most circulating silver coins based on intrinsic metal value, were made to wear quickly so that a loss of about 5% of total weight would be nearly slick (Fair to Poor using US terms).

When worn - at times the letters can look very slightly thicker due to the shape of a typical punch used to make the working dies. The sides do taper to keep the punches from jamming. Only rarely will this taper be visible without magnification. Here the limit may have been exceeded.

I too am bothered by the way the dentils have worn in. Not enough to condemn the coin but enough to be extremely cautious before making a decision.

I suggest starting with a density confirmation. The coin should have a density of 10.31 if the alloy is correct. You need to get access to an analytical balance accurate to better than 0.01 grams. A range of as much as 0.1 means the coin is very unlikely to be genuine.

Regarding XRF - test a spot that has very little toning or any discoloration. Again, a laboratory test is required to determine the trace contaminants present. Specifically look for gold and arsenic as trace contaminants.

One final issue that causes me to suspect the coin are the raised "lumps" in the fields and the odd discoloration seen on the final edge picture. An origin that can only be traced back 20 years is NOT adequate to preclude a modern forgery. I have run into forgeries of this date as far back as 1990 and they were of similar appearance and were silver.

Thank you swamperbob for your comments , it makes me wonder if there any real ones out there ! especially learning that they were forging them in England in the 1790's. 200 years of forgeries kind of ruins the pleasure in collecting these anymore.