Eight Reales - 1796 - Mint ID?

Welcome Bill!

Be sure to wait for swamperbob to come along and look at this coin. There's a real good chance it's a counterfeit. He will know.

OK - Mexico City! Thanks
Are the counterfeit ones at least made of real silver?

Hello Bill, Welcome to the site. I hope you get the answers you are looking for.

I reviewed the pictures. In my opinion the coin is most likely a recently made counterfeit that employed a real host coin to produce transfer dies or molds of some sort. I have several reasons:

1. I own several counterfeits that would appear to match this coin very closely. I can not be 100% positive because I can not see enough surface detail to make a perfect match. In the case of the copies I own, the chop marks were added AFTER the coins were cast so no two are "identical". These faked chop marks are often made with small straight line punches so that a Chines letter might be composed of 5 or 6 seperate strokes. REAL CHOPS are almost always a single punch apploed all at once. Check the chops and look for overlaps within the designs and any indication of differences in depth within one punch.

2. The surface texture in the scans which show the most surface refection appear to show the surface normally associated with a die cast copy. See the lighter view of the shield side of the coin above the crown on the assayer side. The surface of the die field appears ot have many dimples.

3. The traces of the edge that I can see in the scan contain serious anomalies that I would need to examine more closely - but there appears to be more than one overlap visible and some of the edge has been overstruck (cut) with diagonal lines rather similar in nature to the Boston forgeries made between 1890 and the 1920s. (Under the CA on the rim.) If you look at the first picture of the portrait side look at the edge visible under the date - the pattern should be circle - rectangle - circle - rectangle with NO variation in the pattern EXCEPT at the two points where the edge design overlaps (at the start and end). Under the 79 there is clearly a discontinuity in design but when you follow the pattern to the right and left there appear to be other instances where two rectangles appear to be placed side to side.

4. On the same scan of the portrait side - there are a few letters that have dark lines along the axis of the letters - the L in CAROLUS and the IIII's in the King's numeral, the I in DEI and the TI in GRATIA all have "dark areas" at the centers. This can often point to convex depressions on the coin (which translates to concave "bumps" on the mold or die). This is quite typical for a transfer die. If these are merely surface toning color changes it could point to a polished original.

For anyone who may follow my comments on 8Rs - you should notice that my answers in 1-3 above point to two different possible conclusions. The coin may be a modern Chinese cast copy or it may be a Boston forgery (struck) but no final conclusion is possible right now.

If you could accurately weigh the coin - it should weigh NO LESS than 26.8 grams nor more than 27.0 grams. Be suspicious outside that range.

Swamperbob,
The coin does weigh exactly 26.8 grams, but, based on the edge (your criterion #3), it is probably a fake. Do you think it is likely to be solid silver? Thank you so much for your input.
Bill