Spanish Colonial Junk Silver: What Would You Do?

Archraz Personally, I would keep the one on the right it is a Contemporary Circulating Counterfeit - probably debased so melt is problematic but still likely worth in the $10 - 20 range as a study piece. I have not been able to ID it in Kleeberg's list but if you can the price goes up fast. I have seen pretty bad looking copies bring over $100 on ebay if they link to that book.

Instead of melting these, hand them out to people as examples of ancient coins. There's just not enough silver in there to make them worth turning into photography plates (or whatever they do with industrial silver these days).

At least keep the ones with dates.

I did a side by side comparison of the portrait on your coin with a real Mexican 8R and the measurements indicate it is a fake. The chin is too straight on the lower side and the indent at the lip is too short. The nose is totally the wrong shap and is about 20% too short when measured from a baseline drawn from the hairline to the neck chin line intersection. In addition the forehead is not the same shape. I think I can match it given enough time, but with no date it is unlikely to be worth too much. Still very interesting because it circulated a VERY LONG time. Proves the forgery was successful.

I was unaware it was a two real. I jumped to the conclusion it was an 8R because there is a counterfeit 8R that uses a profile resembling the 2R. The mint for the coin is clearly Mexico City based on the assayer initials TH and looking again more closely I can now see the 2.

So I have to reverse my diagnosis - it is most likely real. The profiles on the 2R and on the 8R have distinctly different proportions.

Bust design actually varied by denomination for EVERY denomination. Mexico City used a "King Punch" system to make working dies in which the major element on each die was on one punch (the King punch) and then letters (sometimes entire words) were punched in afterward by the die sinkers. (The process is written up in Riddell and elsewhere).

The King Punches used at Mexico City did vary but they only changed periodically as they wore out or broke which amounted to about every decade or two. There were no reducing lathes in use to copy a master pattern so each King Punch was created separately. The King's portrait varies ONLY when the King Punch is retired.

There may be small added details that vary die to die. The reasons for these minor variations are usually because of poor initial punch setting (so as not to waste the die blank) or they can be caused by damage to the die while in use (clashes come to mind). But even in those cases, the profile is still uniform for all assayer TH coins.

It is similar to the changes in Lincoln's portrait on the US cent that occur every time the Master Hub is redone. Most collectors don't even notice but the small changes are there. Just compare a pre-1980 cent to a post 2000 cent and you can readily see the hub changes. They are numerous.

I never hand any coin over to melt. NOT yet anyway. I really do not believe in it, because a really worn junk coin got me started collecting over 50 years ago. It is still only a melt coin - but I still own it. I remember best the cheap junk coins I owned when I was 7 or 8. I carried them with me everywhere. I loved them. I held them and could imagine the history they represented. The near junk coins are all some kids can afford and keeping a nearly dateless 2R around for some kid to own and love in the future is worth it to me.

That is why I have boxes of junk silver all over the place. I guess if I needed the money to live on - they would go first. But until then they will sit - safe from the melting pot.

Archraz, if you ever want to sell them for melt to get a nicer coin, I would buy them from you at melt to keep them out of the melters pot. Or I could trade you for a nice 8, I have hundreds of duplicates in my collection. I would never let a coin like that go to the scrapper. You could start a kid coin collecting with a coin like that and create a future forum member.
Spanish silver saw a lot of circulation so there are lots of worn coins out there looking for love.