Bolivia 1701-P Y 2 reales
This specimen was lot 920 in Sedwick sale 34 (Winter Park, FL, November 2023), where it sold for $312. The catalog description[1] noted, "Potosí, Bolivia, cob 2 reales, 1701 Y/F, posthumous Charles II, very rare. Unusually round flan with choice and well-centered full cross and pillars, clear assayer Y/F twice on pillars side, parts of (CAROL)VS II on cross side, XF with toned fields, only the second example we have handled. Pedigreed to Ponterio auction 141 of January 2007, with original lot-tag 419." The Potosí mint was the most prolific issuer of silver during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, nearly all of it cobs such as this. This type was struck 1667-1701 for Charles II, who died early in 1700. Assayers "Y" and "F" are listed for 1701. The other Latin American mints placed the date near the edge where it rarely struck up, whereas Potosi issues have the date smack in the middle, ensuring that the date would be legible even if the rest of the design was smeared. As a result, Bolivian cobs can be collected by date, unlike the other mints (Mexico, Lima, Guatemala). The Potosí mint was the last to abandon the manufacture of cobs, in 1773.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 6.77 g, 0.931 fine silver, this specimen 7.64 grams.
Catalog reference: Cayón unlisted, S-P43; KM-24; Cal-unl.
- Cayón, Adolfo, Clemente Cayón and Juan Cayón, Las Monedas Españolas, del Tremis al Euro: del 411 a Nuestros Dias, 2 volumes, Madrid: Cayón-Jano S.L., 2005.
- Calicó, Xavier, Numismática Española: Catálogo General con Precios de Todas las Monedas Españolas Acuñadas desde Los Reyes Católicos Hasta Felipe VI, 1474 a 2020, Barcelona: Aureo & Calicó, 2019.
- Menzel, Sewall, Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins, New York: The American Numismatic Society, 2004.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- [1]Sedwick, Daniel Frank, Augi Garcia, Cori Sedwick Downing and Connor Falk, Treasure Auction 34, World, U.S Coins and Paper Money, Winter Park, FL: Daniel Frank Sedwick LLC, 2023.
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