NEWP: Yet another face of Ferdinand VII

TwoKopeiki

Newest addition to my War of Independence pieces - 1816 Durango 8 Reales. Yet another artists' interpretation of what Ferdinand VII looks like (which gives me an idea for a trivia-giveaway in the near future). I haven't performed Specific Gravity on it, but wouldn't be surprised to find lower-than-usual grade silver. Weight is 26.58g. The edge is crude colonial circle-rectangle pattern, with matching overlaps.

laurentyvan

I guess I never realized there was so much portrait variety in this series until I started following your posts. Thanks for the education. I like the way this particular coin has worn.

IstilllikeZARcoins

I also like your posts Roman - please keep educating us.

TwoKopeiki

Thanks, guys. I think it's more in line with "thinking out loud" than "educating" - every coin I get is new to me, as well, so I'm also the one learning. Also, I welcome any discussion on this topic

TwoKopeiki

Here's some general information on War of Independence coinage I saved from a conversation with an expert collector of Mexican coins of this period:



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Numerous early examples are silver, but debased. The overweight copies were hunted out and melted in the 1820s so most of what remains are the underweight ones. In the period of the War of Independence the line between Counterfeit and Debased original gets VERY blurred. Even the best mints were off in weight, since all of the Branch mints operated during the War as emergency facilities. Currenly, there isn't a definitive die listing of which dies are associated with "authorized" strikes and which were not.
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