Chopmarked 8 Reales

The 8 reales, having made long journeys across the Pacific, became covered on both obverse and reverse with chopmarks. The original design was obliterated by the strikes, and the king's face eventually became unrecognizable. Nevertheless, this silver coin continued to circulate in the market. The strikes did change its faces. Yet the overlapping marks suggest that the coin was used while being checked by human hands; still, this one coin cannot tell us that it was inspected once for every mark, or that it passed every time. The marks were struck by merchants, money changers, and silver assayers. Each had their own mark, which they stamped on the silver coin as proof of their verification.