1857 Mexico Zs MO 1/2 Real- Die Variety or error?

NumisOxide

Tried the world coin forum but no bites. Maybe someone here may know and weren't these legal tender in the US until 1857?!

I've been recently getting interested in early Mexican coinage. I have a couple pieces now. This one caught my eye on ebay because it has a few different things going on with it. The obverse displays a neat looking die break. It also looks to be either struck off center or struck with misaligned dies? Not sure if this is common with these coins.
Let me know if more pics are needed.Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

BustHalfBrian

I’m no expert on these, but it kind of looks like a contemporary counterfeit. Did you confirm it’s silver and % purity? I’ve found that many CC coins from this era are “German silver” (a nickel and zinc alloy).

dcarr

A lot of the coins from that period are somewhat crude in manufacture. Coins from The Mexico City Mint (Mo) are usually better than other Mexico mints in terms of production quality.

Although the strike and/or collar are not perfectly positioned, it appears to be genuine. Based on the state of preservation and not the strike quality, it appears to be EF-40.

ricko

I am definitely not skilled in these coins... My first impression was 35, but will defer to @dcarr's known skills in this arena. Cheers, RickO

NumisOxide

@BustHalfBrian said:
I’m no expert on these, but it kind of looks like a contemporary counterfeit. Did you confirm it’s silver and % purity? I’ve found that many CC coins from this era are “German silver” (a nickel and zinc alloy).

Rings out like silver and just weighed it, came out 1.55g. The spec on these is 1.69g. > @dcarr said:

A lot of the coins from that period are somewhat crude in manufacture. Coins from The Mexico City Mint (Mo) are usually better than other Mexico mints in terms of production quality.

Although the strike and/or collar are not perfectly positioned, it appears to be genuine. Based on the state of preservation and not the strike quality, it appears to be EF-40.

Yes, I agree with your EF-40 grade. Even a lot of unc. pieces look worn because of strike quality. Thanks dcarr!

@ricko said:
I am definitely not skilled in these coins... My first impression was 35, but will defer to @dcarr's known skills in this arena. Cheers, RickO

Yes these are hard to grade imo. Neat coins though. Lots of different Mexican mints as dcarr was saying. Looking forward to added more of all the different denominations. Thanks.