A bit of a mess

[Fubar 82]

Not too sure if this is an example of a fake or a genuine coin.

Mexican 8 Reale silver coin of 1819.

It's had a hard life and probably has no value.

My question is, is it a fake or is this the way they were made?

The "silver" skin is not very thick and the inner disk appears to be copper. Definitely not magnetic.

Taking the words cupro-nickel to the extreme.

[RLC35 288]

Fubar,

The coin you show, a Pillar Dollar, is a fake. They are around 90% silver. This coin does not have a iron wafer core. The actual data is as follows for this coin.

1819 8 Reales

27.07g (total wgt)

.903% silver

.7859 oz ASW (silver wgt)

Krause # KM111

[Fubar 82]

Thanks for that RLC35.

It weighs around 25 grams on our postal scale.

Looks old enough to have been around for quite a while.

Doesn't seem much point in today's market when they're only worth about a hundred bucks.

Probably more point when they were in circulation.

A curiosity. I might keep it.

Thanks again.

Kris

[azda 979]

Hi Kris, here are 3 pix of my Spanish 8 Reales Peru Lima Mint, it might help next time you see one. OBV first then REV then rim

[azda 979]

REV.......I've made the pix big enough so you can see all the detail

[azda 979]

Rim............Hope they help next time you buy.

Edited May 5, 2010 by azda

[Fubar 82]

Thanks for that, azda.

The edge is the big difference. Mine is very ill-defined.

I doubt if I shall be looking for another one. This one just appeared in a box of mixed coins at a general household auction sale.

I might keep it as an interesting object.

Regards

Kris

[Peckris 579]

REV.......I've made the pix big enough so you can see all the detail

How on earth do you keep a picture that large below 150k? If I save a JPEG that size in Photoshop it comes out 200k MINIMUM, and usually more.

[Fubar 82]

REV.......I've made the pix big enough so you can see all the detail

How on earth do you keep a picture that large below 150k? If I save a JPEG that size in Photoshop it comes out 200k MINIMUM, and usually more.

When saving as a jpg most programs give you the option of adding some compression (most of them automatically compress by 10% unless you tell them not to).

Not too sure about Photoshop 'cos I don't use it normally.

A compression to 70% doesn't lose detail that will be missed on a computer screen.

Cheers

Kris

[Peckris 579]

REV.......I've made the pix big enough so you can see all the detail

How on earth do you keep a picture that large below 150k? If I save a JPEG that size in Photoshop it comes out 200k MINIMUM, and usually more.

When saving as a jpg most programs give you the option of adding some compression (most of them automatically compress by 10% unless you tell them not to).

Not too sure about Photoshop 'cos I don't use it normally.

A compression to 70% doesn't lose detail that will be missed on a computer screen.

Cheers

Kris

Photoshop gives a sliding scale from 12 (Maximum) down to 1 (Very poor). I find that the lowest acceptable compression is around 6 or 7, though 5 (which is to less than 50% of original) is just about acceptable. But a picture that size, even at 5, would be way over the 150k limit. So I'm wondering what you use?

[Fubar 82]

Photoshop gives a sliding scale from 12 (Maximum) down to 1 (Very poor). I find that the lowest acceptable compression is around 6 or 7, though 5 (which is to less than 50% of original) is just about acceptable. But a picture that size, even at 5, would be way over the 150k limit. So I'm wondering what you use?

I use Corel's Photopaint but that's getting a bit long in the tooth.

The main one I use is ACDSee Photomanager.

The attached is the full size scan of the coin I started asking about with the complicated background removed (the plainer the better) and compressed by 50%.

Done very quickly and with a minimum of experimenting.

Cheers

Kris

[Peckris 579]

Photoshop gives a sliding scale from 12 (Maximum) down to 1 (Very poor). I find that the lowest acceptable compression is around 6 or 7, though 5 (which is to less than 50% of original) is just about acceptable. But a picture that size, even at 5, would be way over the 150k limit. So I'm wondering what you use?

I use Corel's Photopaint but that's getting a bit long in the tooth.

The main one I use is ACDSee Photomanager.

The attached is the full size scan of the coin I started asking about with the complicated background removed (the plainer the better) and compressed by 50%.

Done very quickly and with a minimum of experimenting.

Cheers

Kris

Blimey! Photoshop must save JPEGs as much larger files than your average program. The problem is, my scanner is linked directly to Photoshop so I don't have much choice. I suppose I could change to another program, but 1/ I'm not sure how to do that and 2/ I don't think I have any other graphics program (when you've got Photoshop you don't tend to look around for alternatives )

Thank you for your feedback anyway.