Bolivia 1732-P YA 2 reales
This specimen was lot 922 in Sedwick sale 34 (Winter Park, FL, November 2023), where it sold for $288. The catalog description[1] noted, "Potosí, Bolivia, cob 2 reales, 1732 YA, rare. Bold full pillars and cross despite much wear (About Fine), with three full dates, one clear assayer and parts of both others, toned fields, tiny edge-split. Pedigreed to the UBS auction 70 of March 2007 (lot 193, one of a group)." 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 1729-47, superseding a type (KM 29) which was 0.931 fine. Assayers "M" and "YA" are listed for 1732, with "YA" awarded a slight premium. 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, 0.917 fine silver, this specimen 5.36 grams.
Catalog reference: Cayón-8817, S-P45; KM-29a; Cal-908.
- 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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