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Bogota or Cartagena, Colombia, cob 4 reales, Philip IV, assayer not visible, mintmark RN to left out

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - World (A-G) Start Price:400.00 USD Estimated At:700.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Bogota or Cartagena, Colombia, cob 4 reales, Philip IV, assayer not visible, mintmark RN to left out
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This item SOLD at 2021 Nov 05 @ 10:59UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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Bogota or Cartagena, Colombia, cob 4 reales, Philip IV, assayer not visible, mintmark RN to left outside of denomination IIII, no Flanders-Tirol in shield, unique, ex-Lasser (Coinage of El Peru Plate), Restrepo Plate. Restrepo-M35.10; KM-unl; 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 but could instead be from Pinto's RN-P issue of 1629 only (known in 2 escudos), 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 also indicative of Bogota mint. The cross on the other side is full and well centered but double-struck, with lions and castles in proper quadrants (more characteristic 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. Pedigreed to the Gran Colombia collection, 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.