Spain Fake Colonial 8 Escudos (Counterfeit) 1792

A reader sent us a picture of her coin, shown at left. Pretty cool, huh? It is an imitation of a Spanish 'gold dubloon' you hear about in stories of the early Americas. Some replicas (counterfeits) you see have the word COPY inscribed, others do not. They are all imitations of the real thing, and they are all worth very little.

Spain had colonized much of the New World and minted coinage in gold and silver in her many colonies. Gold coins were called escudos and silver coins were called reales, but these coins acquired many nicknames. Escudos were dubloons and 8 reales coins were called pieces of 8. You have probably heard those nicknames in tales of pirate's treasure.

Here is a picture of a genuine 8 escudos, shown at the left. When you look at both coins side by side there is no comparison. It is evident which is real and which is fake. The real coin is worth hundreds of US dollars (thousands when in good numismatic condition), while the replica is worth about $10 on a good day. Please visit this CoinQuest link for an appraisal of genuine Spanish escudos.

When in doubt about authenticity, check the weight. Genuine 8 escudos weigh 27.07 grams. If your coin misses that number by more than 0.5 gram either way, it's a fake.

Analyzing the inscriptions is interesting. CAROL is Charles, King of Spain. Charles IV reigned from 1788 to 1808, preceded by Charles III from 1759 to 1788. D G stands for Dei Gratia, by the Grace of God, and HISP ET IND means of Spain and the Indies. The phrase AUSPICE DEO IN UTRO FELIX translates roughly to under God's will we will happily prosper.
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