1708 Spanish Colonial 8 Reales of Felipe V (Mexico City Mint)

If you inherited or found an old silver 8 reales coin dated 1708 with the name Felipe V on it, you have a genuine Spanish colonial piece struck at the Mexico City mint, and it does have real value. Most examples trade from a few hundred to a few thousand USD depending on condition and how clearly the design shows. This is not a coin worth millions, but it is far from junk silver.

The 1708 8 reales (KM#47) is what collectors call a cob or milled colonial silver piece from the reign of Felipe V, the first Bourbon king of Spain. "8 reales" was the denomination, and for centuries these coins were the workhorse of global trade, the original "pieces of eight." The Mexico City mint was the most prolific producer of them in the world.

What your 1708 8 Reales is actually worth

Value on these early colonial pieces swings hard based on how much of the design survived and whether the date and mint marks are legible. Heavily worn, corroded, or sea-salvaged examples sit near the low end. Sharp, well-struck coins with full detail and clean surfaces bring the strong prices.

Condition	Typical value (USD)
Heavily worn, corroded, date barely readable	150 to 400
Circulated, clear date and design	400 to 1,200
High grade, sharp strike, minimal wear	1,500 to 5,000+
Certified high-grade (NGC/PCGS) rarities	can exceed 8,000

These are broad ranges because early 1700s colonial silver is notoriously uneven in strike. Two coins of the same date and mint can be worth ten times apart based purely on eye appeal and surface quality. Get it graded before assuming either extreme.

The silver in it (your price floor)

This coin was struck in .900 fine silver, weighs 26.36 grams, and measures 41 mm in diameter. The edge is plain, with no lettering.

That works out to roughly 0.76 troy ounces of pure silver. At current silver prices, the raw metal alone is worth around 20 to 25 USD. That figure is your absolute floor: no genuine example should ever sell below its melt value. In practice, the collector premium on a real 1708 8 reales puts it well above melt, so anyone offering you "just the silver price" is lowballing you.

Is it rare?

Rare in absolute terms, no. The Mexico City mint pumped out enormous quantities of 8 reales during the colonial period, and Felipe V pieces survive in reasonable numbers. What makes any specific example valuable is not the date by itself but the combination of a legible strike, an identifiable assayer mark, and good surfaces. A 1708 with a crisp date and clean fields is genuinely scarce and commands the high figures in the table above.

If your coin shows a mint error, an off-center strike, a rotated die, or a doubled strike, that can multiply the value, but only if it is a genuine minting flaw. Most "errors" people spot on colonial silver are actually post-strike damage: corrosion, cleaning marks, or old dents. Have it verified before you count on any error premium.

How to tell if it's genuine

Colonial silver is one of the most heavily faked areas in the entire hobby, so verify before you buy or sell.

• Weigh it. A real example is very close to 26.36 g. Use a jewelry scale. Significant deviation is a red flag.
• Measure it. Diameter should be around 41 mm with a plain edge.
• Check the metal. It should be .900 silver, not shiny modern white metal or a plated base coin. A magnet will not stick to silver.
• Study the engraving. Look at the cross, the pillars, the mint mark and the assayer initials. Cast fakes show soft, mushy detail and often have a seam on the edge.
• Be suspicious of any deal far below melt value. If someone is dumping it cheap, assume there's a reason.

For anything you plan to sell for real money, professional certification from NGC or PCGS settles both authenticity and grade, and it usually pays for itself in the price you get.

Where to sell it

Don't dump it on Facebook Marketplace to the first buyer. To get a fair number:

• Take clear photos of the front (obverse), back (reverse), and edge in good light.
• Compare your coin's condition to the table above.
• Use a verified numismatic dealer from the Pesoteca directory for an in-person appraisal, or list it in the Pesoteca buy-and-sell forum among collectors who know what colonial silver is worth.
• Because this is a precious-metal coin, only deal with buyers who let you verify the piece and its weight before any money changes hands.

For more on Spanish colonial silver, see our guides on how 8 reales pieces of eight were valued in world trade, and browse other colonial-era coins in the Pesoteca catalog.

Got a 1708 8 reales in hand and not sure if the date and mint marks check out? Post clear photos of both sides in the Pesoteca forum and let collectors who handle colonial silver every week weigh in before you sell.

This piece belongs to the reign of Philip V of Spain (1700-1746). The first king of the House of Bourbon in Spain, grandson of Louis XIV of France. His first period of reign (1700-1724) lasted until his abdication in favor of Louis I.

The government of New Spain in 1708 was in the hands of Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva, duke of Alburquerque, the first Bourbon viceroy with initial reforms at the mint.

The numismatic type of the piece is cob (macuquina), also called hammer-cut coinage. The planchets were cut with shears from a silver bar and struck between manual dies, so no cob has an edge or a perfectly circular shape. It circulated as the reference trade coin throughout the Atlantic for more than two centuries.

The Mexico Mint had been striking cobs almost uninterruptedly since the sixteenth century. The last years before the pillar reform of 1732 saw an increase in the volume of registered silver, pressed by European demand and by the mines of Zacatecas and Guanajuato. The dies were signed by the Mexico Mint assayer active in the period, an official charged by the Royal Treasury with certifying that the silver fineness met the viceregal standard.

Colonial catalogs trace this piece within the families of the Mexico Real de a ocho, with prices that respond to rarity by year and assayer signature.

A year in the midst of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) between Bourbons and Habsburg supporters.