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COLOMBIA, Bogotá, lead obverse and reverse uniface die trials for 50 centavos, 1886, "Cocobola," uni

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins By Country Start Price:800.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 2,000.00 USD
COLOMBIA, Bogotá, lead obverse and reverse uniface die trials for 50 centavos, 1886,  Cocobola,  uni
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COLOMBIA, Bogotá, lead obverse and reverse uniface die trials for 50 centavos, 1886, "Cocobola," unique. Restrepo-unl (cf 16, p. 253); KM-unl. 3.85 grams total. Brightly lustrous UNCs with choice details, thin and fragile but still well preserved, presumably unique trials from the Canadian master hub in the Banco de la República collection mentioned in Restrepo (same unadopted reverse). Collectors of Colombian half dollars are always keen on the "Cocobola" issue that was struck only in 50 centavos, the only collectible date being 1887 (1888 is extremely rare). 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 Colón against the regime of Colombian president Rafael Núñez, 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 Román. 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 Colón. George Davis, later hanged for this crime, was better known as "Cocobolo." When these 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 Núñez 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). Accompanied by NGC "ineligible type" tags.