Mapping the Madness: A Collector’s Guide to Mexico City Portrait 8 Reales Varieties
TwoKopeiki
Posts: 9,927 ✭✭✭✭✭
After years of collecting, researching, and uncovering new varieties, I’m excited to share what I hope becomes a living reference for fellow enthusiasts: a complete date-by-date breakdown of all known - and yet-to-be-discovered - Mexico City Portrait 8 Reales varieties. This is 8 Reales Madness in its purest form. Whether you’re hunting your first variety or your fiftieth, this list is here to guide, challenge, and maybe even inspire your next big find.
Ever since I started collecting Mexico City Portrait 8 Reales varieties about a decade ago, I’ve held a consistent belief: with every major design change - be it a new date, assayer, or monarch - there’s a high likelihood that existing dies were reworked by the mint’s die sinkers to reflect the update.
Mexico City produced millions of 8 Reales during this period, and knowing the approximate die lifespan of 20,000–30,000 strikes, it’s safe to estimate that anywhere from 50 dies in the earlier years to over 250 dies in the peak production years were used annually. Considering how labor-intensive die sinking was - and the fact that die steel was a scarce and valuable commodity - it makes sense that working dies would be re-punched or modified rather than discarded when changes occurred.
This idea has shaped how I collect. I’ve always kept an open mind that not all varieties are yet known - some just haven’t surfaced. And by following that principle, I’ve been fortunate to uncover a number of new varieties over the years.
This is a working set - still growing, refining, and upgrading - with each addition carefully chosen not just for grade, but for its place in the broader historical and numismatic narrative. If you’ve spotted a variety not listed - or think you’ve uncovered something new - drop a comment or DM me. Let’s document it together. Every new discovery helps complete the story.
Goals of the Set:
● Discover, document and display every date, assayer, and variety Portrait 8 Reales from Mexico City
● Prioritize eye appeal and provenance alongside technical grade.
● Encourage greater collector awareness and appreciation for the complexity of Mexican portrait 8 Reales.
● Eventually create the most complete and high-grade set of its kind.
This work is dedicated to fellow collectors who believe the hunt never ends. And that every coin has something to teach us.
Comments
👑 Carlos III (1772–1788) - Major Varieties
The Portrait 8 Reales series begins with Carlos III, whose reformed coinage introduced the bust design to align with Enlightenment-era aesthetics and the Bourbon push for modernization.
👑 Carlos III (1772–1788) - Minor Varieties and other oddities.
👑 Carlos IV (1789–1808) - Major Varieties
Under Carlos IV, Mexico City's minting output soared—marking the peak of colonial silver production. Frequent changes in date punches, assayers, and portrait styles make this era a goldmine for variety hunters. Many overdates and repunched features trace back to this reign’s massive die use.
👑 Carlos IV (1789–1808) - Minor Varieties and other oddities.
👑 Ferdinand VII (1808–1821) - Major Varieties
Ferdinand VII’s reign spans one of the most turbulent periods in Mexican history—marked by war, independence, and shifting allegiances. His coinage reflects that chaos, with rushed engraving, recycled dies, and rare transitional types that keep even the most seasoned collectors on their toes.
👑 Ferdinand VII (1808–1821) - Minor Varieties and other oddities.
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Ya ever wonder how many fingertips or worse were lost using this type of screw press?
Every time i see a weird strike-through...
How could i forget @Senator32 's 1779!
Bump with a few updates
Added a few more Mexico dates
I think this is a fantastic endeavor!! Thank you for all that you have done for me and my collection as well.
Successful buys on BST board from NotSure, Nankraut, Yorkshireman, Astrorat, Ikeigwin(2x), Bob13, Outhaul, coinbuf, dpvilla, jayPem, Sean1990, TwoKopeiki, bidask, Downtown1974, drddm, nederveit2
Absolutely FANTASTIC! Thank you for sharing and I have bookmarked this to my browser!
Anthony the Coinman
_Keen Collector, Avid Researcher, Occasional Dealer
_
Instagram: @anthonythecoinman
Thanks guys. I've repurposed an old post chain to keep track of all the varieties and to help add more as other examples surface.
Hope it helps somebody
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I really love what you've written above.
An undertaking such as this, in order to truly become the comprehensive all encompassing guide to Mexican Portrait 8 reales that I think you envision it could be, listing major and minor varieties complete with supporting images, auction sales, provenances, mintages and other important data, will require a "village" and, likely, a couple of lifespans to complete.
I applaud you, first for your dedication and hard work on this project to date. Secondly, and certainly every bit as important and what I think makes you a beloved member of these forums and a highly respected numismatist, is the fact that you are willing to share all those countless hours of study and analysis you've performed, without attempting to keep it squirrelled away for your own use or in any way gate keep the information you've gleaned from your research, but rather you've made the honorable decision to share it openly with the numismatic community at large with the unselfish hope of providing future scholars and collectors alike a wonderful, meaningful and perhaps inspirational head start toward gaining a full complete understanding of the Mexico 8 reales portrait series. While we all stand on the shoulders of those that came before us, you have now picked up that torch and will be the foundation of many to come.
Well done Sir
This is quite incredible, to say the least
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.
Beautifully said.
Very impressive research!
Thank you, everyone, for comments and DMs. I'll get a simple site hosted eventually, but until that day, having a consolidated thread should do just fine.
I've received requests to be able to access and reshare some images. I thought I opened all of them up for viewing, but if you run into some issues seeing images - please let me know.
As always, more than happy to discuss any particular date or variety.