Bolivia 1727-P Y real
This specimen was lot 44064 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Costa Mesa, CA, August 2021), where it sold for $95. The catalog description[1] noted, "BOLIVIA. Real, 1727-P Y. Potosi Mint. Luis I. PCGS Genuine--Salt Water Damage, VF Details Gold Shield. The date and major details are still visible despite the mass loss from salt water immersion. Unfortunately, there is no trace of the king's name." The specimen shown is a 1727 cob one real from the Potosí mint in Bolivia. 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 1725-27 for Luis I even tho the young king had died in August 1724. 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 2.74 g.
Catalog reference: Cayón-8449, KM-33.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- 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.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The August 2021 ANA sale: World and Ancient Coins, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2021.
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