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A Pair of Brazil 960 Reis Coins.
Zohar
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The rule is buy the book and then the coin. I did not. I guess will need to get some guidance from the experts here. As an aside, this purchase falls into the "neat impulse buy" category.
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Less impressive images from 1756; my own attempt at imaging with my old Nikon E4300:
DPOTD
I think you got a very good deal on it. Examples with full original toning like appear less often than you'd think. Excellent details and a nice strong strike (see how the pearls in the crown are well-rounded for example) with just enough of the undertype showing through. I can't tell from the photos, but with some patience you can probably figure out the undertype. The date will be at about 1:30 on the obverse and the mintmark around the SU of SUBQ on the reverse. Is there a little luster showing through as well?
Regarding the 1815-R, also very nice, great toning. It's overstruck on a Mexico City 8 reales, and struck with a worn die that obscured most of the obverse details. You can see the M on the left side of the top triangle on the reverse. The 8 of "8R" is on the right side there. Angling the coin in the light with a loupe you might be able to make out the assayer initials around the UB of SUBQ. The date will probably be hard to see because of the toning. Appears to be a FERDIN VII armored bust.
Both look like nice, problem-free coins. Great purchases.
By the way, I've opened up a new blog with information on 960 Reis if you're interested. I'll be continually adding more information and details on the series, specific varieties and dates. Hopefully it will be informative and helpful.
http://blog.960coins.com
http://blog.960coins.com - All about the 960 Reis coins.
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960Coins - thank you for this. Hard for me to see these overstrikes. I may get the book by David Levy to educate myself and perhaps get involved.
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I really like the look on that 1815.
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<< <i>Hard for me to see these overstrikes. I may get the book by David Levy to educate myself and perhaps get involved. >>
It's an excellent book with lots of background information on the coins and history of the mintings. It's focused on the topic of overstrikes but does give a very good general overview. While the book doesn't go into a lot of tips on how to identify the undertypes (something I'll be writing more about), it gives detailed information on what all the known undertypes are, has photos of the original host coin as well as overstruck examples (though the photos of these are small and black & white, so nearly impossible to actually see the overstriking well), gives an idea of rarity of each overstrike and a slightly-outdated 2009 valuation. Very useful and well-written.
I don't have any in stock right now aside from my personal copy, but I have some more arriving shortly. It's a limited edition (300 copies) book and so sometimes hard to find. There are 5 for sale on ebay right now, from the author himself I believe, selling for more than what I charge, but that's an option.
http://blog.960coins.com - All about the 960 Reis coins.
Check my BST!
Z .. Have you caught the South American Bug?
It's a very nasty bug I tell you.
Feel free to ask for my BST references!
*I reserve the right to change the direction of my collection at whiplash-inducing speeds.
960Coins, thanks for your informative blog!
-Mike
<< <i>Sharing a scan of my 1814 960 Reis. Perhaps the uneven thickness of the host coin allowed so much of the undertype to be visible?
960Coins, thanks for your informative blog!
-Mike >>
Hi Mike, that's a great example of overstriking: the host coin is showing through at just the right spots to clearly see the important details: date, mintmark and assayer initials. Very nice!
(I'll cover this in more detail in my blog) That kind of visibility of the host coin is a result of the milling process of the 960Rs. Instead of the more powerful steam presses around at the time, Brazil mostly used rocker presses. If the pressure wasn't sufficient, or the host coin wasn't uniform, then some of the overstamping would fail. Also, due to the fact that they were re-using previously minted silver as the base, if the re-annealing wasn't done properly, the silver in parts of the coin would be too hard for the overstamping to be effective.
http://blog.960coins.com - All about the 960 Reis coins.
Check my BST!