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| 1812-Mo JJ Colonial Mexico 8 Reales, Ferdinand VII, PCGS Chop Mark - XF-Detail |
This coin has a heavily toned obverse and a crescent toned reverse. There are several heavy large chop marks and the coin is slightly dished or bowled. I originally shared this coin on Instagram a little over a week ago. At the time I had identified all but 3 of the clear well-defined chop marks. I've now identified two more of the three, one of which will involve a little more detailed discussion.
Newly Identified
3-character compound chop
Compound chop mark with 3 characters. Probably a company name. Given the theme of the characters, possibly a business involved in farming.
雨 (yǔ) - rain
合 (hé) - to close, shut; to join, combine, unite; to suit, fit
Small Seal Script
This one was really confusing for a while. The root of the problem was the interaction of between the design of the host coin. Initially it looked like the bottom of the character was a Ø. Upon closer inspection, you can see that what looks like a diagonal slash is actually the space between the right pillar and the ribbon.
Clearing that up revealed the bottom is actually a circle. I'm pretty confident the character is an archaic Chinese calligraphy style called Small Seal Script. Similar looking script is often found on ancient Chinese cash coins as well. In seal script, 口 (kǒu) is sometimes represented as a circle, so that gave a foundation for a search. Eventually I came upon this character in a slightly different seal script style.
That is the seal script form for 杏 (xìng), which actually appears right next to this character in regular script. Perhaps this coin was once used to buy some apricots from the 苗雨合 company?
Test or Chop Marks
There are two drill marks on the obverse behind the head and on the reverse at the top of the right pillar.
On the reverse lower-right at 4 o'clock, there's a large hole, likely stolen/removed silver at some point during this coin's life in trade.
That's very cool and informative! Enjoyed it, thanks.
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