874

Bogota, Colombia, 50 centavos, 1888, "Cocobola" bust, extremely rare, PCGS MS61, ex-Pat Johnson.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins By Country Start Price:7,000.00 USD Estimated At:8,000.00 - 16,000.00 USD
Bogota, Colombia, 50 centavos, 1888,  Cocobola  bust, extremely rare, PCGS MS61, ex-Pat Johnson.
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This item SOLD at 2023 May 04 @ 11:20UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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Bogota, Colombia, 50 centavos, 1888, "Cocobola" bust, extremely rare, PCGS MS61, ex-Pat Johnson. Restrepo-405.2; KM-185. With light toning over muted luster and just a few minor marks, this coin is clearly superior to the VF30 example we hammered for $10,000 in Auction 27 (May 2020). Unfortunately PCGS misattributed the present piece to the Wyon-bust type (Restrepo-406.1), with only the aforementioned VF30 properly listed, while NGC does not differentiate between the two types in its census; it can be safely assumed the present example is one of the finest among the "five known" stated by Restrepo. The nickname "Cocobola" has an interesting origin: The area known as Panama, which after Independence became part of Colombia, often found itself in a state of revolt, and one of the worst was in March 1885, when the Colombian general Pedro Prestan led a revolution in the city of Colon against the regime of Colombian president Rafael Nunez, who was working toward a more centralized and authoritarian Colombian nation, culminating in the abrogation of the "Rionegro" Constitution of 1863 and the formation of the new Republic of Colombia in 1886, in no small part due to the influence and machinations of the First Lady, Soledad Roman. Prestan's revolt, ostensibly opposing the involvement of the United States of America in the conflict (the US's interest, of course, being the construction of a canal connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea), employed two Caribbean liberals, the Haitian Antoine Pautricelli and the Jamaican George Davis, to burn down the city of Colon. George Davis, later hanged for this crime, was better known as "Cocobolo." When the first new half dollars of the Republic of Colombia came out in 1887, using the same unpopular reduced fineness (50% silver) that had been ordered by Nunez in 1885, but also with the portrait of his wife, his opponents took the opportunity to mock the use of Soledad's portrait on the coins and recall the Panamanian revolt by nicknaming the coins "Cocobola" (feminized version of Cocobolo). Pedigreed to the Pat Johnson Collection (stated on label). Please use this link to verify the certification number