8 Reales Pillar

SimonW

I need a sounding board on this one. Legit or fake? Just your first opinion, I'll discuss more later, talking about elements and history of the piece.

pruebas

I don’t like it. Fake.

Boosibri

What he said

SimonW

Yeah, that was my assessment as well...what gives me pause it that it's got an auction record through a well known auction house.

pruebas

I bought a raw Pillar 8R from HA a few years back. Honestly, I didn't even carefully look at it, but someone else did and told me it was fake. Only then did I carefully inspect it. I then showed it to a well-known dealer, who concurred. HA took it back.

It happens. Sometimes people are busy and fail to carefully inspect each and every coin in a consignment. Most of the newer Chinese fakes are XF-AU coins. Lesson learned.

pruebas

Here is the one I bought that turned out fake. Now I can see it. But at that time, I missed it. It was for resale, not for my own collection.

SimonW

That's a great example. What would you say are the pickup points for it being fake?

I see a lot of fakes that have irregularities in the base letters of "ET IND" those seem to show up regularly in fakes I've seen.

The R and T in VTRAQUE that merge into the rim, like the dentils have become part of it.

The seeming doubling of the whole obverse.

SimonW

SimonW

What about this one? What would or wouldn't turn you on/off about it. (Not my coin.)

pruebas

That's a real bad fake. What ISN'T wrong with it???

realeswatcher

@pruebas said:
That's a real bad fake. What ISN'T wrong with it???

Exactly WHICH piece are you referring to??

SimonW

Good question...

jgenn

@SimonW said:
I need a sounding board on this one. Legit or fake? Just your first opinion, I'll discuss more later, talking about elements and history of the piece.

Are photos of the surfaces all you have to share on these pieces? Very accurate die transfer technology was available in the late 1800's so many forgeries from that time forward have accurate "elements". Given that, the "history", if you mean how long it has been in a collection, is not a very good indicator of authenticity unless you can trace it back to the mid-1800's.

BillJones

I have two pieces. which I believe are good. One is in a SEGS holder, the other is raw.

The raw one.

This one is graded by SEGS

And this one I know is a counterfeit. I flagged it at my local club's auction. It was sent to IGC who returned it with the "questionable authenticity" box checked.

SimonW

@jgenn said:

@SimonW said:
I need a sounding board on this one. Legit or fake? Just your first opinion, I'll discuss more later, talking about elements and history of the piece.

Are photos of the surfaces all you have to share on these pieces? Very accurate die transfer technology was available in the late 1800's so many forgeries from that time forward have accurate "elements". Given that, the "history", if you mean how long it has been in a collection, is not a very good indicator of authenticity unless you can trace it back to the mid-1800's.

Gotcha. Agreed. I've collected the minor denominations for a while now, but these eight reales have been a bit of a headache. The minors are not counterfeited nearly as much, seems like the larger the coin the more likely it's fake. Of the seven 8 Reales I've purchased, I've sent four back because I don't think they're real (this one included.) I bought it originally because it was auctioned with a reputable auction house, but the longer I looked at it the more "off" it seemed to me.

BTW, my Avatar is a pic of a Chinese fake...the first fake one I bought. Kinda keep the image around as a lesson. Don't buy it too quick, and a good deal is usually suspect.

SimonW

@BillJones

In my opinion your coins both look legit. The last one obviously does not.

I really like the first one you posted especially. It's got a nice look.