Counterfeit - 8 Reales

The 1732 Mexico City 8 reales marks the first year of milled coinage at that mint — the debut of the "columnario" machine-struck series — making it one of the most historically significant dates in New World silver coinage and a predictable target for fakers. This example is struck in nickel silver rather than the correct sterling, an immediately diagnostic tell requiring no further analysis. Contemporary counterfeits were typically cast; a struck fake in modern alloy points to a twentieth-century tourist piece or collector deception rather than anything produced to pass in trade.