For Stan...Chinese trade 1/2 reale.

[Trez]

Stan,

The Swastika I posted along time ago...was struck on a 1/2 real, mexico mint...that circulated in China...(Chopmark)
If I remember correct RGecy had the meaning correct (an ancient symbol of good luck, prosperity, and long life) and the merchants would chopmark the reales as their way of showing other merchants that the coinage was accepted by them...in a nutshell.

Trez

[Mackaydon]

Trez:
The coin in your pic must be similar to a coin referenced by Aidan Work on 2-13-05 wherein he said: "I was recently shown a 1794 Mexican Piece of 8 that has a lot of chopmarks.The most interesting one is a Swastika chopmark on the top of the left hand pillar on the reverse."

http://www.cointalk.com/t4557/#ixzz0ZAVS3nLF
Don......

[divewrecks]

Thanks Trez. Was that a shipwreck recovered coin or a beach find? I'm guessing one of these because of the corrosive attack. Wherever the find, I'll bet that coin could tell some interesting stories about the adventures it must have went been through since being mined from the earth!

Stan

[RIcoinhunter]

The Buddhist use a symbol thats looks like a Swastika.I've seen another reale with Chinese characters,but never one with that chopmark.

[cuzcosquirrel]

Yeah, it is obviously a local acceptance stamp from the far east. I would also agree with China, though I don't know who's it is exactly. Many of these cob coins also show file marks straight across the faces.


There were stresses in Spanish-Chinese Manila galleon trade during the 1700's that led to a decline, and to an end about 1815. It was then picked up by private interests in Mexico and the US, and coins continued to be counterstamped. Even today, US paper dollars recieve small purple ink chop marks after circulating aborad.