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About this journal

My rekindled interest in collecting started in 2009 with the impulse purchase of a 1783 shipwreck coin.  I did not imagine that collectible grade 8 reales coins were available until I started browsing Ebay to see whether I got a good deal on my first one.  After I realized what a poor deal I made, I set out to build a collection of quality 8 reales of the 1772-1791 design featuring the bust of Charles III.  I've added a modest collection of columnarios, too.

In 2013, I started a themed collection of coins depicting the sport of fencing, my other hobby/activity.

My current focus is on a collection of world silver crowns of the 16th to 18th centuries.  So far I have examples from the Commonwealth and England, France, Holy Roman Empire states and free cities, Swiss cantons, Dutch provinces, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Ragusa, Italian states, the Ottoman Empire, Malta, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Transylvania, the United States of America and, of course, Spain and Spanish colonies.

Entries in this journal

When does bidding really close at a live auction?

Floor bidders have the advantage at Sedwick's Treasure Auction 14 I had an unfortunate experience on Wednesday night during Daniel Frank Sedwick's live auction of world coins. My maximum absentee bid was the starting price for a scarce 8 reales overdate, and I watched it go live through my internet connection from home (I had turned off the live audio/video feed). Although I was prepared to counter-bid, no additional bids came in and the item closed at my high bid. Great! Another slot fille

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Controversial Deaccession

Provides the acquisition opportunity of a lifetime I guess I don't pay much attention to general numismatic news because the events surrounding the deaccession (elimination of items by a museum) of the Huntington Collection of coins and medals from the Hispanic world passed by without my notice. I only started to check out what this Huntington Collection was after I won an interesting 8 reales from an auction house that specializes in ancient coins. Archer M. Huntington (1870-1955), philant

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Real de a Ocho de Dos Mundos

1762 Eight Reales from the Old World and New World I have a batch of 8 reales in for grading so while I wait on the results, I thought I would journal about the one that I find the most interesting, a 1762 Spanish 8 reales from Madrid. In the mid 1700's, the Spanish mints did not turn out many of the larger silver coins. Production of the 8 reales ended in 1736 and did not appear regularly until 1772, with the exception of the 1762 mintage. Charles III ascended to the throne near the end o

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Pandamonium strikes!

Update on my recent diversion while I wait for my latest 8 reales submission to be graded. I read Gary's (ghermann44) latest post about his time at the ANA show with Dave (Yankeejose) and noted that he finally bought his wife a silver panda coin. I've been meaning to journal about pandas for awhile so here goes. I got sidetracked from my 8 reales passion earlier this year when I bought an MS 70 2011 1 oz Silver Panda coin for my fiancee to commemorate the year that we met. Since pandas are h

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First Gold

I've only collected silver, mostly 8 reales, until this one. Now, you might expect an 8 reales collector to acquire a Spanish escudo as their first gold coin, but I've been wary of buying into the current gold bubble. I hope to acquire a few nice 8 escudos when, and if, the price of gold drops back to lower levels. As a fun distraction from my 8 reales focus, I've been building a theme set of coins that depict the sport of fencing, my other main hobby. Since the beginning of the year I'

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Amazing 8s

My custom set has more than 500 views! Thanks to all of you that have viewed my custom set "Amazing 8s -- Charles III Portrait 8 Reales 1772-1791". The special thing about a custom set is that it's uniquely your own. For my set I selected 20 coins from my collection of 8 reales, one for each year of issue that featured the bust of Charles III (some posthumously) and made sure to choose examples from a variety of mints. I did some research and tried to include a few interesting facts a

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Spanish Eight Reales countermarked as English Dollars

'Two kings heads and not worth a crown' Yes, this is another post about 8 reales. My last post did not get very many views but maybe that's because it was submerged in a flood of new journals that should have been posted as replies. If this one doesn't get many views, I promise to post on a different subject next time Anyway, several 8 reales, stamped with the head of George III by the Bank of England, have shown up on Ebay recently and reminded me that I needed to take some better photos

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Early Milled Eight Reales of New Spain

It's as close as I can get to the rare 1732 and 1733 8Rs Milled silver coinage in the Spanish Colonies started to appear in 1732 as a result of a royal decree of 1728 from the reigning monarch, Philip V, the first of the Bourbon Dynasty to rule Spain. Prior to this, colonial coins were hand stamped on irregularly shaped discs, known as cobs. Mexico City was the first of the colonial mints to use screw presses for their coinage on planchets of standardized diameter and thickness. Prior to the

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This REALLY Bugs Me!

An Ebay seller trying to take advantage of an NGC "clerical error". As an 8 reales collector, I frequently browse the Ebay listings for these coins. Several months ago I saw a NGC certified 1783 Mo FM listed. Now, for those in the know, this is the rarest of the series and no graded examples are in NGC's or PCGS's census. The photos clearly show severe seawater damage over the assayers initials. I might admit that the second initial looks more like an "M" than an "F" but it would be easy t

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The Raw Coin Submission Blues

When NGC decides to "Detail" your coins Well, my last submission of eight reales coins came home today. I had already seen the grading results online but the disappointment seems to have more impact when you have your box in hand. Slightly less than half got full grades -- my worst submission so far. These were mostly coins from Spanish auctions where I must rely on the pictures and catalog descriptions. I've learned to steer clear of "Rayitas" (scratches) and "Algo limpiar" (cleaned) so n

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Just passed 100K Registry Points!!!

I knew I was close but didn't know which one would put me over the top. Hello fellow collectors. My first journal happens to coincide with my recent breakthrough of the 100K registry points milestone. Sure its just a number but it defines a point at which I can look back and reflect on the collection I have built in last three and a half years. For me, this all started with one of those "America's First Silver Dollars" followed by the realization that collectible grade eight reales coins (a

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