Bolivia 1721-P Y 2 reales
This specimen was lot 931 in Sedwick Treasure Auction 39 (Winter Park, FL, May 2026), where it sold for $4,800. The catalog description[1] noted, "BOLIVIA, Potosí, cob 2 reales Royal (galano), 1721 Y, very rare, PCGS VF details / holed, finest and only example in PCGS census. Perfectly round and evenly struck with 100% full inner details (pillars side slightly off-center), richly toned all over, with hole at bottom of pillars / near top of cross, only the second example we have seen (the other being the KM Plate Coin), with none in the NGC census." The specimen shown is a 1721 cob two reales from the Potosí mint, struck during the reign of Philip V. 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. 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 6.73 grams.
Catalog reference: Cayón-8724 (assayer M), S-P43a; KM-R29; Cal-846.
- 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, Connor Falk and Sarah Sproles, Auction 39, World, U.S Coins and Paper Money, featuring the Jorge Ugaz Collection of Lima Silver Cob 2 Reales and the Darby Collection of Guatemala Silver Cobs, Winter Park, FL: Daniel Frank Sedwick LLC, 2026.
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