Mexico 8 Reales - Courtesy Of Washington Mint?

Washington Mint, American Mint, various "mints" all ran promotions in magazines taking relatively common coins that most people have never seen, putting them in a fancy holder, telling a great story about them and then selling them for way more than they were worth. I remember these, I also remember one where they sold cap and ray 8 reales as "confederate dollars" and spun some story of how the South when they lost the New Orleans mint turned to Mexico for it's coins.
If the one on ebay you are refering to is 170670773653 take note that the coin is a 1819 Zacatecas mint 8 reales, not a common coin at all. It sold for $88 dollars with all the packaging from the American Mint.

Washington Mint, American Mint, various "mints" all ran promotions in magazines taking relatively common coins that most people have never seen, putting them in a fancy holder, telling a great story about them and then selling them for way more than they were worth.

Exactly... with the ruinous heavy polish added to appeal to the numismatically unsophisticated market they were aiming for. Most of the pieces they seemed to do this to were generally no better than avg circ, w/uninteresting chop patterns... so I guess no harm/no foul could be argued. The Washington Mint also marketed large amounts of El Cazador 8R in similar blue felt clamshell holders.

Regarding the weird toning on some... I've never really seen that on the polish job 8R that I've come across... Did the pieces you picked come in the plastic "Air-Tite" style plastic capsules (which these were normally issued in), or were they loose within the clamshell case? If the latter, it could be the felt that did funky things with the tone... Actually, are you finding that the funky tone is on the heavily polished pieces? That would be odd, b/c that polishing usually seems to render the outer layer fairly resistant to tone (moved enough microns of metal around, apparently). From your pics, it seems like the first has the polish job (not all that much toning?), but the second has a duller surface...

Either way, the old trick to help (somewhat) heal heavily polished surfaces like this is a dip in bleach. It isn't magic, and can come out uneven... but it will def. dampen that service plate look. Another idea (experiment) might be some sort of acid to etch away that rubbed down outer layer and reveal a more "virgin" surface, which then may tone up in a much more natural manner. I actuall yjust picked up a similarly polished Span. Neth. patagon that I'd like to try something like that on... I don't really know exactly what to use, though.

As an aside, while most of the Wash. Mint pieces I've seen seem to be legit, several of these mass marketing outfits used what are apparently fakes/replicas. Particularly, just about everything I've seen in "Postal Commemorative Society" holders (most often, you'll find these in a wallet-sized holder with a person's name typed inside) are fake. I've actually matched matched some obverses and reverses I've seen in these holders to those found on several groupings of known fakes that I've come across (they share identifying markings). The other "mass market" holder I've containing fakes is one with the coin mounted in the middle of a map with the title "Treasures of the Caribbean"...

I'll try acetone, or any dip that someone can recomend. Religious conviction prohibits me from bleach, acid, or rubbing :-).

Acetone will only take off surface grime... it won't do anything to "heal" the surfaces, of course. As far as not wanting to "doctor" the coin, I get that... but look at it like art conservation or similar. The piece is already largely ruined - no matter what you do, that will always be the case... You'd be doing it a favor by mitigating the damage inflicted to at least somewhat improve the aesthetics. There's nothing worse than a hideously polished piece... We're not talking adding frost to make a DMPL Morgan here, or adding a "VDB"! Plus, these make great practice pieces. I know you collect by condition, but one day, you might come across a terribly flawed piece that with a little help could at least be a decent place-holder (especially as you've mentioned you collect overdates).

After reading about it, I tried the bleach trick on a similarly polished Columbian 1/2... While it's visible that it's still a problem, retoned coin, the difference is NIGHT AND DAY. I don't know if it etched away just enough of the surface (can bases etch?), or digs in rather deep compared to normal "artificial toning", but the unnatural polished surface was completely gone.

Keep in mind, a lot of dips are acid-based (oddity of language there...). Already halfway through the looking-glass. :->

These were probably a good buy...

At melt? Can't go wrong...

I just signed in to this site and looking at the photo, I have a similar First Silver Dollar, it's 1805 but I can read:
"HISPAN ET IND REX ME T P " The "ME" the letter M is attached to the letter "E" It is in poor condition, I figure it might be worth 15 to 20 $. Do you think that the price is right ?

I also have 9 out of 12 coins of the collection called "Victory at Sea Gibraltar WWII Warships commemorative coins, I wonder what is the value of them ? Never been used ?


Regards.

Thank you, at least I know it's worth $20.