Mexico 8R 1743 Columnaria

Very interesting. Hopefully some more knowledgeable people will comment soon.

This is a tricky call from those semi-odd photos. Surfaces/coloring definitely look strange in the pics but I'm not sure if it's just blatantly obvious white metal OR or this there's some combination of a weird cleaning/dip plus odd lighting/photo editing for the pics. That could be why PLUS VLTR is jumping out so much (residue left behind in the protected, recessed lettering).

So, eh, idk... slight off-center, edge/denticles not "neatly" struck, slightly unevenly thick planchet in spots... all quite normal for early 1740s Mexico. Slight repunching of letters occurs frequently on genuine pieces. Detail, strike look appropriate also, and even the bit we can see of the edge design looks proper - but the surfaces are just odd.

If I had to say, it's probably genuine (cleaned)... but would definitely not bet my life on it from those pics.



The best thing to do is look through archives of known genuine pieces - including the large amount of shipwreck pieces of these years (e.g. lots of Reijgersdaal wreck pieces from right around 1743, usually really well-preserved). Some/much of your observations/red flags are not really so if you're familiar with various eras of Mexico (or other mint) pillar 8R. The more genuine pieces you look at, the more this will make sense.