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Paraguay, 1 peso fuerte (necessity coinage), 1868 lion countermark on a Bogota, Colombia, 8 reales,

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - World (P-Z) Start Price:4,000.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 7,500.00 USD
Paraguay, 1 peso fuerte (necessity coinage), 1868 lion countermark on a Bogota, Colombia, 8 reales,
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This item SOLD at 2018 May 16 @ 14:43UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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Paraguay, 1 peso fuerte (necessity coinage), 1868 lion countermark on a Bogota, Colombia, 8 reales, 1839RS, unique, ex-Fonrobert. KM-unl.. 22.12 grams. Bold full countermark (XF) on an AXF host with soft centers as usual, grey toning throughout, a unique combination and choice example of necessity coinage countermarked during the Paraguayan War (1864-70) between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Countermarked with a circular punch featuring the classical seated lion figure below Liberty cap on staff dividing date 1868 within a border of pearls, this being the only known example on an 8R host. While there are other variations of this countermark with a plain circle instead of pearls whose authenticity is unverifiable, it is crucial to note that three of the very few known examples with pearl borders are coincidentally the ones with the most reliable pedigrees. Two of them can be traced to the Fonrobert collection: the present coin (Fonrobert #10187) and a Guatemala 2 reales 1864 (Fonrobert #10188) that was also lot #1104 in the November 1979 Hoflich-Sternberg (Zurich) auction and was listed (as #18) in Enrique Pena's Monedas y Medallas Paraguayas (1900) erroneously as a Guatemala peso. The third coin with pearls-border 1868 countermark, a Lima, Peru, 2 reales 1828, was lot #1103 in the same Hoflich-Sternberg sale and, crucially, shows quite evident wear after the countermark was applied. As a side note, both illustrations in the Hoflich-Sternberg sale now appear (as X5 and X7) in Unusual World Coins (5th edition, 2007), by Colin R. Bruce, II, despite the fact that they are legitimate issues of Paraguay. Even more fascinating for the cob collector is the existence of a similar countermark but with date 1869 on a Lima, Peru, gold 1 escudo 1697 (#10192 in Fonrobert and #20 in Pena). (Cataloging assistance by Carlos Jara.) Pedigreed to the Jules Fonrobert collection (#10187).