Bolivia 1738-P M real
This specimen was lot 73518 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, October 2025), where it sold for $145. The catalog description[1] noted, "BOLIVIA. Cob Real, 1738-P M. Potosi Mint. Philip V. PCGS VF-35. From the Richard August Collection." 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 This type was struck 1729-47 and superseded an earlier type (KM 28) which was 0.931 fine silver. Assayer "M" operated 1737-40. 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 2.82 g.
Catalog reference: Cayón-8535, KM-28a; Cal-599.
- 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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