"America's First Silver Dollar"

Welcome to the site.

Pictures would be a huge assist here.

The coin you are referring to is a Spanish 8 Reale or Pillar Dollar(look at the reverse for the origin of that name). This coin was what would be considered a world currency at one time. Most genuine 8 Reales are not particular rare or valuable since they were minted in such massive quantities for decades. However, there are many copies floating around as souvenirs and historical replicas so there is no way to know whether yours in genuine or not without clear pictures of both sides. There are several people here quite knowledgeable in 8 Reales so we should be able to provide an answer for you either way.

haha.. well I can't really get a good picture of it to be honest, I can get a picture that shows you what it is, but nothing detailed enough to figure out whether or not it's fake or real I don't think..

you guys said it's not worth much anyways? If it's not worth much I wont even bother.. the box it's in would lead me to believe it's real, but then again I don't have the slightest clue when it comes to coins, all I know is what I've read in the past couple days..

When some people say not worth much, they are not talking about it being worth $.25 or anything. Not worth much could be anything from $50 or $100 on down. It would depend on authenticity and condition. If you bought it from a newspaper ad, the condition is probably rather bad and would be worth a small amount.

I know I didn't say that. :)

I probably should have been a bit clearer Odds are that you won't have anything you can retire on but average 8Rs can be worth $50-100 which is really not much for a 200+ year old piece of silver.

8 reales are very common counterfeited but that's not saying yours is counterfeit. The only way to tell is by picture or by weight. We have one guy named swamperbob that actually collects contemporary counterfeit 8 reales coins and can usually spot one even with mediocre pictures, so if you could post pictures I am sure he would be able to tell you what you have if this thread is brought to his attention. Some coins like yours are a no brainer but others are very well made so if no one here can tell you for a fact I know swamperbob surely can

Your coin is a Spanish Colonial Portrait Dollar. (They stopped making Pillar dollars in 1772.) You need to please describe the coin so I can help you identify it. Reading the reverse legend around the shield and pillar design starting to the right of the top it should read "HISPAN ET IND REX" (King of Spain and the Indies), you need to tell me what follows. The first thing is the mint mark, if it is a large "M" with a small "o" over it the mint is Mexico City. It it is something else, let me know what. Next comes the "8R" which stands for 8 reales, the denomination of the coin. Last should be 2 letters which would be the assayer of the coin that was responsible for it having the correct silver weight. The coin posted below is Mexico City Mint, 8R, assayer TH. Your 1807, if it is an Mo mintmark, should also be assayer TH. However 1807 has a scarce overdate 1807/6 so check the last digit with a powerful magnifier and see if a 6 shows under the 7. As for value, a nice undamaged 8 reales should be worth $35 and up depending on the date/mint. There are many dealers who will pay $35 for these coins all day long. If you were to sell it to a collector that wanted it, you could get a little more. As for the fakes, you would have to post a picture and several of us could offer you an opinion as to the coin being real. The first thing to check is the edge design, it should alternate rectangle/circle all the way around with 2 "overlaps" exactly 180 degrees opposite each other. As stated earlier, some of the contemporary fakes are more valuable than the real coins.