Saturday Silver Spotlight- Mexican 8 Reale Chopped Coin
Yes this is a real coin. It has so many chop marks on it, it's hard to identify. I was able to figure out it's a 1790's 8 Reale featuring Charles IV. Obviously you can't see him but I did find some distinguishing marks to point me in that direction.
What is a chopped coin?
A chopped coin is one that has been stamped by merchants to guarantee weight and purity. Each person had their own stamp and it looks like this one has been around the block. A good deal of the chop marks are from Chinese merchants.
What I found to identify it.
Here is an example of what I believe this coin to be. Charles IV of Spain. AR 8 Reales 1790's
What leads me to believe this are some of the markings around the edge. Here you can see a faint number 8 and the letters RFM.
You can also see the H and SPAN in HISPAN right here.
I'm going to keep this one short as I would like to do a more in depth article on the chop marks themselves. These coins aren't for everyone and some dealers think they are ruined because of the chops. I personally think they add character to the coin and tell a story of it's travels. Each of these chops identifies a different merchant and I think I have figured out a couple of them, but that will be in the full article.
Do you have any chopped coins in your collection?
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I hadn't seen those before. I can't imagine that someone would take the time to look through all the chop marks to see if they can't find one from someone they trust. It's new to me, so it seems strange, but I get what you mean about the journey of the coin. It's like the stamps on dollar bills that allow you to track where they've been if people have been inputting the locations.
I have a friend that collects Reales. I have to show him this post. He would be so upset someone did that to that coin. Nice detective work my friend.
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I knew about chopped coins but I don't own any. The American Trade Dollars were minted to help commerce with the Orient (mainly China) and there is a great number of these (ATD) chopped coins available in numismatic markets.