Bolivia 1726-P Y real
This specimen was lot 1212 in Aureo y Calicó sale 447 (Barcelona, March 2025), where it sold for 140 € (about US$183 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted, "1726. Luis I. Potosi. (Y). 1 real. Very scarce. BC+ [choice Fine]." The specimen shown is a 1726 cob one real from the Potosí mint in Bolivia, struck during the brief reign of Luis I. 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: 3.38 g, 0.917 fine silver, this specimen 1.92 g.
Catalog reference: Cayón-10104, KM 33, AC-17.
- 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 Juan Carlos I, 1474 a 2001, Barcelona: Aureo & Calicó, 2008.
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- [1]Sisó, Teresa, Eduardo Domingo and Lluís Lalana, Subasta Numismatica 447, Barcelona: Aureo y Calicó, 2025.
- 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.
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