Holy cow that's a lot of chop marks

I came across this auction today. I've never seen so many chop marks on one coin before

https://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-collectables/coins/usa/listing-1924270958.htm?rsqid=bf6618612ec14789b4b833081154cf60

I see your heavily chopmarked trade dollar, and raise you one even-more-heavily chopmarked 8 reales coin:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1772-mexico-reales-heavily-chop-462285384

Watch out for fake chopmarks. Actually, I'm not even sure we can spot fake ones all the time. These ones, on both coins, are very heavily punched. Is this specific to a particular place or region?

I was wondering, what's the point of doing so many chopmarks?

Quote: "Choucas"​I was wondering, what's the point of doing so many chopmarks?

​Normally they were for merchants to mark a silver coin as up to standard, but even after the design of the coin was completely blocked by chopmarks, the coin (now for all intents and purposes just a lump of silver) continued to circulate, because Chinese merchants cared less about the provenance of the silver and more about its validity.

Does anyone know whether or not those heavily chopmarked coins actually lose any significant amount of weight after being stamped so many times? If I were a Cohong merchant in 19th century Canton, that would be my greatest concern.

I mean, I know the purpose of making chopmarks, but let's say you are a merchant and you receive a coin with already tenths of chopmarks, why do you make your own?

Quote: "Choucas"​I mean, I know the purpose of making chopmarks, but let's say you are a merchant and you receive a coin with already tenths of chopmarks, why do you make your own?

​Oh, in that case I'm not sure.

Possibly to test that the piece of silver wasn't a counterfeit coin, made to look like a chopmarked real coin? Or to provide a "history" on the coin to track down anyone participating in illegal activity (like serial numbers on banknotes today?) Just my theory.

Maybe they don't trust other people's judgement, of there were fake chop marked coins circulating so the merchants put their own mark on the coin, so if they see it again they know they've already personally checked the coin. I'm just speculating though.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​

Quote: "Choucas"​I was wondering, what's the point of doing so many chopmarks?

​​Normally they were for merchants to mark a silver coin as up to standard, but even after the design of the coin was completely blocked by chopmarks, the coin (now for all intents and purposes just a lump of silver) continued to circulate, because Chinese merchants cared less about the provenance of the silver and more about its validity.
​
​Does anyone know whether or not those heavily chopmarked coins actually lose any significant amount of weight after being stamped so many times? If I were a Cohong merchant in 19th century Canton, that would be my greatest concern.

​As long the chopmarks are made by a punch and hammer it will not affect the weight of the coin. When it is
engraved it becomes a different story, because than a small amount of the coin's material is removed.