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Bogota, Colombia, cob 1/4 real, posthumous Charles II or Philip V, style of assayer Arce (1704-1720)

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Cobs - Other Silver Start Price:2,500.00 USD Estimated At:2,500.00 - 5,000.00 USD
Bogota, Colombia, cob 1/4 real, posthumous Charles II or Philip V, style of assayer Arce (1704-1720)
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This item SOLD at 2013 Oct 30 @ 18:08UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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Bogota, Colombia, cob 1/4 real, posthumous Charles II or Philip V, style of assayer Arce (1704-1720), backwards lion and corded borders, unique. S-B11; Restrepo-unl. 0.87 gram. Colombian cob 1/4R are all rare, but after a few relatively prolific issues under Philip IV, the denomination almost completely disappears, with only a handful of 1700s specimens in existence. Normally the way to attribute a Colombian 1/4R by date is to compare its castle and lion with the punches on 8R, for in effect the same 8R punches were used on the 1/4R in any given year. But in 1704-1720, according to mintage data in Barriga-Villalba, NO 8 REALES WERE STRUCK, which is corroborated by the lack of extant examples of those dates. The same mintage records, however, do show that 1/4R were struck in that period, and we believe there are now two known examples: the present coin and a similar corded-border piece (with different castle and lion) in the Archer M. Huntington collection (Morton & Eden, November 2012) that sold for 11,000 British pounds. (See the Blanton article above for further proof and narrower possible date-range.) Without a doubt this is a major discovery piece for Colombian numismatists and cuartillo scholars everywhere. About Fine with some weak strike, nicely toned in accordance with its old pedigree. Pedigreed to a late-19th or early-20th century collection passed on to the collector's grandson in the 1940s.