LOT   /  Treasure, World & U.S. Coin Auction #19  / 

1308

Popayan, Colombia, 50 centavos, 1880, very rare, encapsulated NGC MS 63, with WINGS gold sticker (no

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - Europe (A-G) Start Price:4,200.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Popayan, Colombia, 50 centavos, 1880, very rare, encapsulated NGC MS 63, with WINGS gold sticker (no
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This item SOLD at 2016 May 19 @ 17:22UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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Popayan, Colombia, 50 centavos, 1880, very rare, encapsulated NGC MS 63, with WINGS gold sticker (no data in NGC census but certainly finest known), ex-Whittier (stated inside slab). Pedigreed to the Whittier collection.

The remote Popayán mint struck coins primarily in the most commonly available metal of the region, gold, likely producing only a few thousand large silver coins during its entire history, beginning in 1758. Sporadic silver crown-size emissions (possibly including a single pillar dollar in 1769, then with 8 reales showing the bust of Charles IV but legend of Ferdinand VII issued in minute quantities during the revolutionary war period of 1810-20, and finally ending with an ephemeral production of silver pesos in 1863) were not accompanied by any half dollar (four reales) coinage whatsoever. Suddenly, coinciding with the massive national production of popular silver half pesos (cinco décimos or 50 centavos), which began in 1868 in the primary Bogotá facility, the Popayán mint issued a handful of similar specie over the course of a dozen years, 1869-1880. No date in the series is even close to being common, but the coins obviously circulated widely, for two of them with different dates are known with Costa Rican revalidation countermarks of 1889. Further evidence is found in an exchange rate posted in New York late in that century with a tad lower rate for Popayán silver halves compared to Bogotá and Medellín. More important to the modern numismatist, no nicely struck examples of any year are known. The same poor striking phenomenon is also typical for the smaller silver issues of that era from the mint (except to some lesser extent on the enigmatic 2 reales dated 1880). For evidence, within this auction’s presentation of superior Popayán silver pieces, we point to the weak details on the nearly Mint State medio décimo of 1875 (lot #1329). The quality of the two 1-décimo pieces in this current group (lots #1320 and #1321) are likely near “condition census” for each subtype. Jorge Restrepo’s treatise on all the national coinage mostly lacks photos of well-made pieces of any Popayán silver types from any era. Lissner did not have even one nice representative, nor did Dana Roberts. Whittier had two pieces that may be “best of breed,” both now again available after ten years off the market since that landmark sale. The fact that the surfaces of the Popayán 5 décimos dated 1873 show natural luster and very little circulation on a 31mm planchet with very obvious poor striking (lot #1306) is educational.

This all leads us to the current lot, by far the finest cincuenta centavos of Popayán dated 1880. Restrepo's listing under type 310 is uncharacteristically brief, mainly citing just technical data and illustrated with a nice XF example. That plate coin is better than any Popayán 5 décimos of any date ever offered or illustrated, to the best of our research. It is nicer than the five or six pieces of cincuenta centavos ever seen in the USA, including in the classic collections of Dana Roberts, Davis Burnett, Howard Herz, Richard Stuart and Pat Johnson. Yet, by comparison, that coin is MANY grades lower than the currently offered piece! It is no overstatement that the coin on offer here holds an important place in Colombian numismatic history.

The pedigree of this coin is certain back to June 1973, which has been nicely summed up for us here by someone who was there:

"At that time, at the Los Angeles Convention of International Numismatics, then the premier annual “foreign coin show” in the USA, this piece created a stir among Latin American collectors, many of whom were in attendance. Michael O’Connor of New Jersey proudly displayed the coin in his showcase and indicated its price was $4000. Alvaro Gonzalez, a Colombian coin dealer, and the late great collector Lia Meissner negotiated for the coin for a couple of days. Dick Lissner and Richard Stuart, as well as Oen Nelson, studied it and considered its possible purchase. They all felt the price was exorbitant, but all wanted the coin. On the Saturday of the show (at almost the exact hour that the Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown in record times), a deal was quietly struck which netted the coin into the specialized collection of Oen Nelson. In Oen’s opinion, stated by him in 2005 when his collection was prepared for sale, the addition of this coin cemented him into pursuit of better and more significant coins of Latin America, something he continued to do for three more decades. Such is the power of possessing such a special jewel! It is not known where the coin resided prior to 1973 but Michael O’Connor indicated that it was quietly obtained from a source in East Germany, a fact that Bill Christensen seemed to confirm as he was pursuing material from that great collection at that time, as was Fred Werner. Students of the period tied the wonderful material, covering all the Latin American countries, to a triad of famous auctions in Europe prior to World War One."

As for the pedigree since the coin was offered in the June 2006 Whittier auction, alone on page 70 of that classic single-collection catalog by Heritage, it is very simple: The current consignor obtained it ten years ago and has held it ever since. Thus this coin has had just two owners in the past 43 years, with a third to be added to the pedigree list at this moment.

As for our assessment of the coin itself, we would say the slab grade is quite accurate, as there are no marks or wear at all, with nice (but not blazing) luster and only the barest trace of toning, the struck details all sharp and clean, just the rims slightly crude (as made), really almost impossibly choice compared to the whole corpus of Colombian half dollars.
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