1797 Mexican Mint 8 Reales - Authentic? Restrike?

I too am curious to see what others have to say because I am no expert by any means. The chopmarks do lend some credibility but they can be faked as well. I am told that the British manufactured a lot of fakes during this period to destabilize the currency during their war with Spain.

Thanks Swamperbob for your feedback. I really appreciate you commenting on my post. I am considering making a purchase of your book, as it seems worth the money for any person looking into collecting these coins.

Would you mind answering a couple questions for me? I appreciate your answers greatly and would love to further study the history behind these coins. It really is not a joke when they people say that anything having to do with China can be fake.

1. If this coin was produced in New England, who were the people behind its production?

2. Can it be assumed that some of the chopmarks are fake? Were they stamped onto the coin after minting and then sent over to China? I'm guessing that if this coin did make it to China, it circulated and was further stamped by local merchants in its lifetime.

3. The chopmark missing the 4th bar, are you talking about the chopmark under the bust's check next to where the underchin and neck lines intersect? "#21147;" This character?

4. What aspect of the edge is off putting to you?

To be fair, in the case of what Bob is referring to with the illicit "bullion restrikes"... it was the West trying to put one over on them, as opposed to the other way around which we've come to expect in the last 20 years.

If you're really interested beyond the long story short version Bob gave here, save him some typing and do a search of the many, MANY detailed explanatory posts Bob has written over the years regarding these. There is a search function on this site, but I find a well-targeted search using Google directly can be more useful.