1878 5 Pesetas, 2g Underweight (Possible Fake?)

Hello 404vp3ce and

I'm not really an expert on these coins, but I don't like the parallel lines that can be seen all over it (a harsh cleaning to remove something else), the rim above the 'PA' of 'ESPANA' or the general mushiness of the designs and the way some of the letters are merging into the field. Also I can't see any trace of an incuse date in the stars on the obverse, whereas I'd expect to see it on a coin in this condition.

I lived and worked in Spain in the early to mid 1980s and fakes of these 5 peseta coins were everywhere, especially in outdoor markets. Some bona fide coin dealers sold them but marked them as reproductions. A genuine silver 5-peseta coin would cost around 1,500 to 2,000 pesetas in F to VF condition then, and the fakes usually sold for about 400 to 1,000 pesetas. One day I was walking around Cordoba Cathedral and a man came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder, produced a fake silver 5-peseta coin and told me that he was out of money and this was his last possession and that he was selling it so he could buy food - I wonder how many coins he sold in an average day!

I'm inclined to agree with txabs.

https://www.imperio-numismatico.com...-alfonso-xii

I think there are not rules against linking another forum posts. If it is wrong, please tell me and I will edit the message. It is one of my own. Here you can see an authentic one.

When you are a collector of a serie, you finally get what we call in Spain "ojo entrenado" (something like "trained eye"), I don't know if you have a similar concept in English. I've had so many 5 pesetas in my hand, and I've seen a bunch of them on photos. There is not doubt about yours sorry, is an easy-to-identify fake, the general art is so bad compared to a real one. And also the weight is a proof of it. None authentic ones are below 24.6-24.7 grams.

I'm not skilled as spotting a fake by sight alone in a photo online.
My date is different, but here is the reverse.

One of the problems with Spanish 5 Peseta coins is that they were counterfeited in full weight silver for perhaps 20 years to take advantage of the fact that the silver content was no where near the value of the coin in circulation. These 5 pesetas like the Morgan dollar in the US was a TOKEN coin. The value in circulation was more than the silver value. So there were forgers willing to make silver counterfeits and reap the profit usually made by the country. It was so bad in Spain by the 1890's that tens of millions of counterfeit silver 5 pesetas were circulating alongside the genuine coins.

Simple fact when a coin costs less to make than the value in circulation, people will take advantage of that difference to make a living.