Bolivia 1737-P E 2 reales
This specimen was lot 73510 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, October 2025), where it sold for $145. The catalog description[1] noted, "BOLIVIA. Cob 2 Reales, 1737-P E. Potosi Mint. Philip V. PCGS FINE-15. From the Richard August Collection." This date is known with assayer "E" (shown here, operated 1734-37) and assayer "M" (operated 1737-40). An alleged assayer "Y" appeared in Sedwick auction 34. 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. 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 5.74 g.
Catalog reference: Cayón-8864, KM-29a; Cal-916.
- 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.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- Menzel, Sewall, Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins, New York: The American Numismatic Society, 2004.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, October 2025 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, featuring the Kirk Menczer Collection of Republican Decimal Minors and the Richard August Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2025.
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