who knows pieces of eight / pillar dollars ?

ebaybuyer

a friend asked me to evaluate his small collection, in the group i found this
one of the few in the bunch that i know absolutely NOTHING about. so this is for those that do. so far ive been able to establish its an 1803 and that it is an om mint (mexican) weighs 26.8g and it has chop marks, im sure there are repros so i told him not to get his hopes up until i put it in front of some people who know them. but this one looks like it could be the real deal, what do you think ?

TwoKopeiki

Don't like the look of those dentils - can you post the edge picture? I'm leaning towards a Boston style counterfeit with this one, but the series of edge photos all around should help with a diagnostic.

lordmarcovan

I just sold a chopmarked piece on eBay and was astonished for what it went for.

I somewhat fortuitously got it for less than melt ($15), and as a courtesy to savoyspecial, since he likes counterstamps and stuff, offered to him at cost, for the same $15. He turned it down, 'cause it had been polished within an inch of its life. It was truly a frightening looking thing.

That didn't deter somebody on eBay from buying it for 61 bucks! I was very happy.

At worst case, I figure it would make somebody a cool pocket piece.




I don't know enough about these to determine any but the worst fakes. The one you posted would fool me, if it is in fact a fake. I have no idea. I'd respect TwoKopeiki's opinion on stuff like this, and there are of course other experts here who chimed in when I had four pieces of eight recently.

ebaybuyer

my scanner adds quite a bit of light to the pics, its not really that bright, and actually has some mint luster remaining around some of the lettering. not sure how i could get a picture of the edge,

lordmarcovan

Yep. I use a scanner, too.

For edge shots, I will typically get two small boxes or something that I can stand the coin between, so it rests on the glass on its edge.

I then set a higher resolution, scan it, and crop out the extraneous stuff like the props (the boxes or whatever I used to lean the coin against). You could use the spine of a book or two, I suppose.

TwoKopeiki

I've replied in the other post on the US forum. The edge is correct in principle (circle and rectangle colonial design), but lack of overlaps and lack of uniformity in both circles and rectangles (as well as distance between them) leads me to believe it's a counterfeit. Probably a full silver weight Boston type.

DorkGirl

Are there collectors for these?

TwoKopeiki

<< <i>Are there collectors for these? >>



There are, but i wouldn't expect much of a premium on this particular type.