Bolivia 1746-P q real
This specimen was lot 73519 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, October 2025), where it sold for $125. The catalog description[1] noted, "BOLIVIA. Cob Real, 1746-P q. Potosi Mint. Philip V. PCGS VF-20. From the Richard August Collection." This date is known with assayer "q" (operated 1744-60). 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: 3.38 g, 0.917 fine silver, this specimen 3.08 g.
Catalog reference: Cayón-8598, KM-28a; Cal-613.
- 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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