Early Contemporary Counterfeit Brazil 960r

I just received a coin that I won on ebay last week here is the link -

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...m=8403282885

This is a EXTREMELY rare coin. During the early 1800s, Brazil recoined 8R Spanish colonial coins to re-value them to a higher level (960 Reis). Because an 8R had less silver than the 960 Reis, the government felt it would stop the export of silver from the country. Brazil bought 8Rs on the silver market and then re-stamped them with new dies and made a profit on each coin. This coin uses real dies from 1810 from the Rio De Janeiro mint. This one is rare because the host 8R coin is a contemporary COUNTERFEIT. This fake was good enough to fool the mint officials.

In the "Monograph of the Silver Dollar" by Riddell published in 1845 - the author reports finding one of the same kind. It is the Riddell # 82. I have been searching shows, dealer inventories and ebay for years hunting for one of these.

For those of you that wonder how I spotted it, the answer is actually simple. It was based on a hunch. The coin has two notches in the rim - those are test cuts made to expose the core of the coin. They are VERY old based on the patina that has built up in the cuts. There are also two patches of copper showing through on the surface of the coin under the I and the N in the word SIGN. Those two clues were enough to make me gamble on it being a contemporary fake.

Since the coin was restamped in 1810 - the forgery has to be older than that. From the remnants of the original edge it appears it may have been a Lotus Flower edge which means the host was most likely a Pillar 8R with a date before 1771.