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MEXICO, Mexico City, cob 4 reales Royal (galano), 1612/1 F, unique.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Cobs - Mexico Silver Start Price:8,000.00 USD Estimated At:10,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
MEXICO, Mexico City, cob 4 reales Royal (galano), 1612/1 F, unique.
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[?]Live Online Auction Starts In 2025 Nov 13 @ 18:30 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
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MEXICO, Mexico City, cob 4 reales Royal (galano), 1612/1 F, unique. S-M17; KM-unl; Cal-unl. 13.91 grams. This unique discovery piece is effectively the earliest known dated 4 reales Mexican Royal, closely matching the details of its successor dated 1615/4/3 (also one known, from the Pat Johnson Collection), in fact the only other dated Philip III 4R known (the next being 1631) and curiously with no clean-date examples known for any of the under-digit dates. At 40 mm in diameter, the flan is fabulously broad, extending past the outer borders in places, with all legends and interior details full and bold, well centered and evenly struck (no doubling at all), just as perfect a strike as you could ask for. It is also medal-aligned, with a small hole at top (clearly old, with displaced metal and associated cracking at the coin's surface), formerly heavily gilt (XRF tested at 9K) but with surfaces now a lightly toned golden-gray with porosity from the removal of the gilding, no worse than XF for actual wear. Of further interest is the fact that INDIARVN is misspelled with an N instead of M for the last letter, which matches both the aforementioned 1615/4/3 example in 4 reales and a known 1612 8 reales Royal. Since this piece is unique and unrecorded, and its formerly gilt surfaces cannot be properly tested, it exceeds the limitations of third party certification and is not currently certifiable by NGC and PCGS, although several Mexican experts have examined this piece and have no concerns about its authenticity. While unsuitable for slabbing until better understood, this coin's importance to the true numismatic connoisseur is nonetheless paramount in the meantime.