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Bogota or Cartagena, Colombia, cob 4 reales, Philip IV, assayer not visible, mintmark R(N) to left O

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Cobs - Other Silver Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 900.00 USD
Bogota or Cartagena, Colombia, cob 4 reales, Philip IV, assayer not visible, mintmark R(N) to left O
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This item SOLD at 2020 Nov 17 @ 23:16UTC-5 : EST/CDT
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Bogota or Cartagena, Colombia, cob 4 reales, Philip IV, assayer not visible, mintmark R(N) to left OUTSIDE denomination IIII, no Flanders/Tyrol in shield, unique, Lasser Plate Coin (El Peru), Restrepo Plate Coin. Restrepo-M35.10; Cal-unl. 11.68 grams. This well-pedigreed coin continues to defy definitive attribution. It is unique both for the omission of Flanders and Tyrol in the shield and for the fact that the mintmark R(N), which seems to indicate Cartagena mint, appears upright and to the left of the vertical denomination IIII to the left of the shield, which is rather off-center but nearly full, a barely visible pomegranate at the bottom indicative of Bogota mint instead. The cross on the other side is full and well-centered but double-struck, with lions and castles in proper quadrants indicative of Cartagena. Nicely toned all over and no worse than AVF for wear, this coin has frustrated all experts so far, and until we see another from the same dies but with more visible information (like date or assayer), we will never know for sure which mint produced it. Plate Coin on p. 76 of Restrepo's Coins of Colombia ( 2012), Plate Coin on p. 128 of Lasser's article "Silver Cobs of Colombia, 1622-1748" in The Coinage of El Peru (1988), also pedigreed to the Christensen auction of December 1980 (lot 493) and to the Ponterio auction of January 2005, with original lot-tag #774.