For reasons that remain unclear, with the arrival of the new tallador major (the famous Marquis of Altamira) at the beginning of 1711, the Mexico City mint began to experiment with novel designs for its gold coinage. From 1711 through 1713 novel ornate crosses and tressures paired with the Bourbon shield to create new designs [...]
I. In the spring of 1713 the War the Spanish Succession formally concluded with treaties signed at Utrecht. Communications and commerce between Spain and Mexico began to return to normal. Mexican viceroy Don Fernando de Alencastre, First Duke of Linares, permitted the first fleet since 1709 to sail in January (still with a French [...]
LIMA 1714/3 M eight escudos, very rare date, bold overdate, without doubt the finest 1714/3 Lima onza from the Fleet, NGC MS 62 Fleet (no other mint state 1714's at either service). Before July 1988 the 1714 Lima onza was a virtually uncollectible date, represented by a single XF specimen. That July Moe Molinar and HRD [...]
L61. El Peru, LIMA 1750 R four escudos. NGC "MS 64 EX LUZ". An exceptional near gem media onza recovered from the wreck of Nuestra Senora de la Luz (1752). Lustrous, mint state, golden surfaces. The highest graded 1750 Lima four escudos. In fact, the highest grade Lima four escudos for the entire 50 year period 1701-1750. A truly spectacular Lima 4 escudos. Before [...]
1. In the fall of 1710 the very wealthy Don Pedro Sanchez de Tagle, soon to be created the Second Marquis of Altamira, was in a celebratory mood. The Mexican virrey he detested was finally being replaced with a man much more sympathetic to the Tagle family. Don Pedro celebrated the departure of the [...]
1750 was the last year gold cobs were minted at Lima. Superintendente Morales had promised Spain to begin striking the new milled portrait escudos in 1751, and no new cob dies were authorized or prepared for 1751. In July 1752 Morales reported he had managed to strike nearly 14,000 marcos of [...]
A unique double overdate from the famous Eliasberg Collection. It was very rare for onza dies to last into a third year of production, but the unexpectedly large gold mintage (1,574,452 pesos) of 1749 forced the Lima minters to call back into service dies that had been retired. The Lima gold coinage of 1749 is [...]
L 80. Viceroyalty of El Peru, Lima. 1744/3/2 V one escudo. One of two coins known to have survived from a reported mintage of 993 (the other coin is not an overdate). No Lima escudos dated 1741-43 one escudos survive to confirm it, but these dies were probably in service for the better part of [...]
L 79. Viceroyalty of El Peru, Lima. 1740/39 V one escudo. Unique. This is the only 1740 one escudos known to have survived from a reported mintage of 561. Mintages of one escudos in the first years (1739-43) of assayer Vargas (V) were very small, and this is in fact the only one escudo known [...]
L38. Viceroyalty of El Peru, Lima 1738/7 N eight escudos. Lustrous near mint state. No mint state 1738 onza have survived. This is the finest of three AU specimen known for this notoriously difficult date. Ironically, 1738 was one Lima's highest production year for escudos, but with no shipwreck or land hoard to preserve some [...]
