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Official counterstamps

Show some of your officially counter marked pieces.

Here are a couple you can consider “pirate” money.

The 8 reale is one from the era of the mint scandal in Potosi. After finding that many 8 reales were being produced light weight and short on fineness they decided to counter mark the pieces devaluing them rather than e lot. There was a shortage of charcoal on top of the mountain in Potosi and the cost of melting the deficient pieces would have been too great. So, after executing the assayer of the mint and one of the local silver merchants they revalued the questionable pieces. Many of the survivors of this type are from the shipwreck Concepcion.


The next is a very scarce 4 reale with the English King counter mark. Most of these counter marks are found on 8 reales. The English did not like the fact that the King was making Spanish coinages legal tender in England even though they weighed less than the current domestic pieces. They referred to the issues as the head of a fool on the neck of an ass. No love loss at the time between the British and French.


Q: When does a collector become a numismatist?



A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.



A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
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