L 71. Viceroyalty of El Peru, Lima 1737 N one escudo. Lustrous, well struck, mint state (NGC MS 61), and unique. No other 1737 Lima one escudo has survived from what was in fact an unusually large original mintage of 1609 coins. All Lima one escudos of Philip V's second reign should be considered rare [...]
L 72. Viceroyalty of El Peru, Lima 1736/5/4 N two escudos. Lustrous, well centered and well struck, near mint state (NGC AU 55). The only collectible specimen of the two known (the other 1736 is an ex-jewelry coin with impaired surfaces and cut down to 5.6 gm). The original mintage was 864 coins. NGC [...]
L 78. Viceroyalty of El Peru, Lima 1733 N one escudo. One of two known survivors from a reported mintage of 474. First year of the unexplained change to the Three Crosses design, which lasts until the end of the gold cob mintage at Lima. Noteworthy 19th century pedigree to Arthur Huntington Collection, which was [...]
C88. Nuevo Reino de Granada (modern Colombia). Cartagena mint. (1655) CS. Four reales. An illegal issue struck after June 21st, 1655 for several months on the orders of Cartagena Governor Zapata. Very rare. Three collectible specimens are confirmed, plus a damaged coin de-accessioned from the Florida State Collection in 2001. The Florida State Collection retains [...]
C74. Nuevo Reino (modern Colombia), mint at Santa Fe de Bogota, 1665 two reales. Very rare (two known). This is the Restrepo COINS OF COLOMBIA plate coin (p.75, type M31-16)). From the Joseph Lasser Collection. The Potosi mint scandal of the 1640's forced Philip IV to redesign all of his New World silver coinage. Santa [...]
C73. Nuevo Reino (modern Colombia), mint at Santa Fe de Bogota, 1755 FS four escudos. Unique. The last dated media onza known from the Santa Fe mint and the last known mintage of cob 4 escudos struck in the New World. Plate coin in Restrepo's COINS OF COLOMBIA pictured as M96-9 (p. 104). AU, full [...]
C72. Nuevo Reino (modern Colombia), mint at Santa Fe de Bogota, 1751 FS four escudos, very rare (two known, this one the best and the only one fully dated). Large planchet for these compact final issues, which are almost always weakly struck. Reverse of 1751-52 with bold REX 1751 HISPAN in the upper legend. NGC [...]
C12. Cuzco 1698 M two escudos. Lustrous, well struck, well centered, and choice mint state. Quite rare in this condition as the vast majority of this one-year issue exhibit serious striking and planchet problems. NGC "1715 Plate Fleet MS63" The full story of the failed gold mint at Cuzco (1698-99) hides in the archives of Spain and Peru. We [...]
Lost October 25, 1865 off the Georgia coast. A San Francisco Double Eagle, rare in this currency shipment from New York to New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. Almost all of the SS Republic's gold was Philadelphia coinage, California shipments to New York having been interrupted by the war and the [...]
L36. Lima 1725/4 M eight escudos. One year posthumous issue in the name of Philip's son Luis, who had reigned less than 7 months in 1724. Lustrous near mint state, well centered, well struck, and tied for the finest known. NGC AU 55 LUIS I. The young king Luis I died August 31st, 1724, after [...]
