The FoxLair
Mexican Republic Reference Collections©
Last Revision: 08/31/05
For the first time in the history of Mexican Numismatics someone is attempting to list, assign an individual number, fully attribute, weigh, and gather photographic reproductions of all Mexican Republic gold and silver coins issued!
All right, when you stop laughing and can get up off the floor please continue reading!
Yes, we all know this is an almost impossible task! But someone must be willing to try for the impossible if Mexican Republic coin collectors are to reach the next logical plateau of growth for our little niche of numismatics. I have personally been collecting Mexican Republic coins for over twenty years, specializing in Republican 8 Escudos and 8 Reales and have amassed very large collections of both. A few people having seen these coins say they are one of the better representations of both for completeness and grade ever assembled. But this is only their opinion; it will be up to history to determine if this is true.
Since 1986 I have been using a computer to save all sales data about Mexican Republic 8 Escudos and some of the rarer 8 Reales for my own benefit. During my early years of collecting I was very fortunate; I purchased two nice libraries containing many books on Mexican history and numismatics and about a thousand auction catalogs. Since then I have continued to add to this collection of literature, as I found material not in my reference library.
Over these many years Mexican Republic gold collectors of other denominations have asked, “Why don’t you collect data about the other gold denominations too?”
I had the auction catalogs and the programs, so why not do it? But I needed to be able to do something with this data, at least to help offset of my additional costs in time and effort. So I created a series of reports for the Mexican coin collector or dealer who wants this data I have amassed over the years. First, are the FoxLair Mexican Republic Gold Sales Recap Reports© that are now available to any and all who are willing to pay for this information. I’ve had several collectors request more detail than was available on these recap reports, so I have also made available the FoxLair Mexican Republic Gold Sales Index Reports© that includes all of the sales information about each individual coin sale that I have been able to find.
Computer technology has made giant leaps forward since my first small personal computer bought in 1986! Today we have massive 100+ gigabyte hard drives, cheap four-color printers, 32 and now 48 bit digital scanners and inexpensive CD and DVD burners making it more practical for me to do the photographic reproduction of my collections. Some collectors wanted photos or scans of my coins, to see if they matched theirs or were new varieties? The next natural progression, is to make these photo reproductions available to other collectors, researchers and dealers who want photographic reproductions of all known varieties of each denomination that I have found?
The body of scans produced in this work represent scores of collecting years by the participating collectors and me; they are reproduced here for the sole purpose of study by serious collectors, researchers and dealers to help the advancement of Mexican Numismatics. Some of these coins are excessively rare and in some instances represent the only known examples from some DAMs (Date/Assayer/Mintmark) or varieties. I have attempted to photograph or scan only the crème de la crème for each DAM and variety that are currently known and that have been made available to me. I have at times scanned more than one example of a particular DAM or variety in different grades or with different toning or die states, trying to make the identification and attribution of the different varieties easier for you and me. In a few instances I have had to reproduce photos from existing auction catalogs, books or photos and scans from other collectors because I cannot locate a particular DAM or variety and will note such. Hopefully, some day in the future, the owners of these missing coins will come forward with the coins, photos or scans to make this research project complete, but don’t hold your breath while waiting.
We would like to encourage other collectors with DAMs or varieties unknown or listed or without photo reproductions to contact us so we may photograph or scan your coins too. I would love to identify each coin in our project with its owner, but alas some owners wish to remain anonymous, and we will respect their wishes for security reasons in today’s turbulent world.
From time to time we will update our files with new varieties and DAMs, as they are discovered and with coins that are not currently photographed or scanned. Therefore, you may want to check back with us periodically to see what new coins or varieties we have found and are now included in our photographic/scanned database.
For the ease of finding what we have currently have available, check the FoxLair Reference Collection Order Form for a list of the denominations and mint files that are now available. Currently we offer these files only on CDs or DVDs. But maybe, if there is enough interest, we may someday try to publish a series of books containing this information? Those denominations and mints marked with “x” on the order form are now available, those without, are still being worked on.
Within each file or denomination, the coins are listed alphabetically by mint, then by year and finally by variety using the FoxLair Dynamic Number for each individual variety.
Each file you order will contain a Microsoft Word 2000© file with descriptions, the FoxLair number and other important data about each coin. After this file you will find each photographic image embedded in a series of TIFF files slightly larger than life when you open it, and you may enlarge or reduce the coins to better study each. With this enlargement process it allows you to blowup each image almost a hundred times normal size, so you may examine each coin closely, much like using a microscope. All photo reproductions of coins created by FoxLair are scanned into our files in color at least 300 dpi (360 dpi for the large gold and 720 dpi for smaller coins), on a Canon N1240U Scanner. However some of the photos or scans supplied by others may vary in quality as they may use other equipment.
FoxLair Partners, Ltd., makes no warrantee for authenticity of the coins reproduced in these files, there is a chance that some may be contemporary counterfeits or even outright fakes! This is one of the reasons I have weighted all of the coins I have had access to, trying to weed out the bad coins, but I believe you will be as amazed, as I was by the great variance in the weights of the “good” coins from most mints. I’ve seen Republican 8 Reales with low weights from 25.1 grams to highs of 28.4 grams from different mints that I know to be “good” coins. I have found contemporary counterfeits that fall well within these boundaries and even fakes that appear to weigh properly, so I question why we find so many 8 Reales from some mints with “adjustment marks”? Originally I was also checking the diameter of all the coins, but as you may know, many of the coins produced in some Mexican state mints during the Escudo-Reales Era were not perfectly round (sic) so I stopped this useless practice as it was a waste of my time. I have attempted to list all varieties and to secure photos or scans of each individual variety, but we have been unable to do so at this time! So do not expect to see every coin and variety you may have heard about on these CDs or DVDs! We are supplying you with everything we have at the moment your order arrives.
One word of caution to potential users and buyers- some darkly toned or brilliant, highly lustrous coins do not scan or photograph well and may need to be “modified” by each user to secure the best possible image for display on your monitor for study purposes. What you receive from us is a completely un-retouched or modified scan of the coin or photograph just as we scanned it. I personally have seen vast differences in these photo reproductions when viewed on different computer monitors! It is impossible for me to adjust the scans for each and every monitor that is currently being used, so you may have to make adjustments to your personal monitor to achieve the best quality of the scanned coins.
Special Note: near the end of the first part of this project (scanning over 2,000 8 Reales) we noticed one member of eBay that was producing great scans of 8 Reales, so we contacted him about these scans. He graciously supplied us with some new scanning techniques that he was using. When you run across those coins scanned with a red background (silver coins) or blue background (gold coins) that just pop out on your monitor, you will understand what I mean. I’m just sorry I didn’t have his expertise before we began the project, as it is much too late to rescan all of the 8 Reales included in the database.
While I have tried to make these files complete, they are not intended to replace other written works such as the Hubbard and O’Harrow book Hookneck or Dunigan and Parker’s wonderful work Resplandores, and of course I highly recommend each book for any Mexican Numismatist interested in these fields.
Controversy…
is going to be the ‘key-word’ of the FoxLair Mexican Republic Reference Collections© from the moment they are released for general consumption, I apologize for this, but I feel strongly that many items have either been overlooked or misunderstood in the past and they need to be addressed. I personally believe we must begin to standardize certain items such as the way we look at the coins and put them into a more standardized form.
One of the most misunderstood, in my opinion, items deals with the error mintmarks found on the 8 Reales. Some error mintmarks in some mints have been handled as individual DAMS (Date/Assayer/Mintmarks) while other error mintmarks, in some mints, have only been listed as varieties of a particular DAM. I’ve asked numerous advanced collectors and dealers why this has happened and most have no good explanation. Therefore I’m treating all error mintmarks in all mints as completely different mintmarks and DAMs. And yes, I know this controversy will put me at odds with many dealers and collectors because many of these error mintmarks are very rare, and by listing them this way it will make it even more difficult to complete some series such as the 8 Reales.
The next area of criticism will be the difference between Major and minor varieties and what conditions constitute each. I refuse to give you my theories for these two complex differences or try to influence you in any way, therefore I will only point out that these varieties exist; then allow you as a collector or dealer to decide which category you want to assign each variety to.
Another highly controversial area in this work will be the way I handle the many different “Styles” within each series of coins. Some collectors and dealers will say I place “way too much emphases on minor style changes!” But again my answer to this controversy is, “It is up to the individual collector or dealer to assign a classification of either Major or minor to these style changes and it is my only job to note there are style changes in the coins”.
We have all either owned or seen coins that have OverDates, OverAssayers or OverMintmarks that we know fit into one of these categories, but it is impossible for us to tell what letters or numbers were being replaced on our particular examples of a coin. In the past most of these “Un-attributable” OverDates, OverAssayers or OverMintmarks have simply been ignored by collectors or dealers because they couldn’t be properly attributed. I personally believe this is the wrong way to handle these varieties! Wouldn’t it be much easier to just say they are unknown and handle them like this- 8/?, MC/??, or DO/??. This type of listing then alerts the collector or dealer to the fact there is an OverDate, OverAssayer or OverMintmark, but we do not know what it is at this time and for the collector or dealer to be on the lookout for a specimen where this coin can be fully attributed properly.
Another very controversial item will be the assigned rarity I give to each coin. Many will criticize this attempt by saying I’m using mainly public sales records. I have had very few dealers or collectors offer me their private transaction records, so what am I to do? Completely ignore rarity or present to you my reader the best information I currently have available?
Now to the biggest problem with this work, even though I have attempted to list all known varieties for each series of coins, I know for a fact my work isn’t complete and is simply “a-work-in-process”. I can only hope that my readers will notify me with additions and corrections that they are aware of, when they see these reference collections. But a word of warning, I will not accept a note from you saying that you have an unlisted variety. No, we are now far from taking someone’s word for a new variety, therefore you must provide the coin or at least a clear photo reproduction or scan of this variety so that it may be used by one and all. I hope these files will provide you with many hours of enjoyment and make your collecting more fun in the future.
One more note- I take full responsibility for any and all mistakes, errors and omissions in these reports and I hope that when you find these you will drop me a note, send me an email or give me a call so that I may correct and update these reports because this is an ongoing project!
I maybe reached at any of the following:
Mailing Address: Email: Phone:
Ralph Poucher FoxlairAJ@aol.com (956) 943-8409
FoxLair Partners
PO Box AJ
Port Isabel, TX 78578 USA
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