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Bogota, Colombia, 50 centavos, 1888, "Cocobola" bust, very rare, PCGS VF30, Restrepo Plate Coin (sta

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - World (A-G) Start Price:560.00 USD Estimated At:700.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Bogota, Colombia, 50 centavos, 1888,  Cocobola  bust, very rare, PCGS VF30, Restrepo Plate Coin (sta
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This item SOLD at 2020 May 28 @ 12:21UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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Bogota, Colombia, 50 centavos, 1888, "Cocobola" bust, very rare, PCGS VF30, Restrepo Plate Coin (stated on label). Restrepo-405.2; KM-185. Honest wear for the grade, very lightly toned, with minor edge-bumps and generally low contrast but all details clear, with desirable pedigree. This coveted second date of the famous two-year "Cocobola" type, featuring a distinctive Liberty bust unauthorizedly modeled after the President's wife, is almost never seen, as only a few (Restrepo says five known) were issued in 1888 before the striking was halted and recalled. The only other certified example we could positively trace is “details” graded, making the present coin a unique opportunity to acquire a straight-graded example of this popular rarity. We expect a lot of interest from advanced collectors! 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. Prestán'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). PCGS #39227629. Pedigreed to the Nueva Granada Collection (stated on label), and Plate Coin on page 234 of Restrepo's Coins of Colombia (2012).