Costa Rica 1871-GW 10 pesos
This specimen was lot 24128 in Heritage sale 3019 (Chicago, April 2012), where it sold for $7,475. The catalog description[1] noted,
"Republic gold 10 Pesos 1871, Q, XF with details more sharp than typical for the type, and with the date digits appealing raised and clear unlike at least 2 of the other 4 confirmed examples of the date. Being the largest circulating gold denomination of the country as a Republic (the later 32.3 gram 1873 20 Pesos, while magnificent, was not issued with intent to circulate), this approximate category of circulating value (denomination) was only issued with the dates of 1850 (as a 12.6 gram Half Onza) and 1870 1876 (as a 14.7 gram "Ten Pesos" ). It is likely the "1850" was produced sporadically for up to five years, and that the 1870 was issued well into 1871 even though only about 60,000 total were produced for all years. Importantly, due to the discovery of large deposits of silver in Nevada (USA), the worldwide ratio of value between gold and silver coinage was being altered by the market. As Gresham's Law dictates, the gold coins were mostly withdrawn by the wealthy as gold was essentially "undervalued" by its official value designation relative to the new mass of silver. Thus CR, a gold producing region on its own, passed a law on April 1 of 1871 reordering the denominations. During the three months prior to that during calendar year 1871, it is highly probable the mint was told not to issue big gold coins for the obvious reasons. Interestingly they issued large amounts of the small gold peso (about 23 in one ounce of gold) which had been pretty much ignored after 1866. No two, five (nor 20) Pesos were issued in 1871 and only a few 5 Pesos were dated 1870. We can infer there was a need for the 1870-dated 10 Pesos which is not historically evident to us as they outnumber the composite of 1871 & 1872 & 1876 dated 10 Pesos by perhaps 50 to one !!! By 1876-77 coinage in gold had been halted and very little remained in circulation (see Manuel Chacon's analysis on his page 70), and it was not resumed until the world went on a new gold standard around 1896-97. Of this 1871 date there are well under ten confirmed examples, perhaps only five. Whereas Gurdian listed it (without a photo) in his excellent checklist of 1958, Wayte Raymond had not certainly confirmed the date and the splendid Norweb and Guttag collections did not house one. Likewise the Caballero de las Yndias group and the recent Goldberg "Tico" collection were without one. In fact the only one to show up in that era was a genuine piece with "soft, almost ghosted, date digits" offered by Art Smith (obtained by him from a prominent collector out of Panama about 1979) in a major advertisement; it is almost certainly housed in the best CR collection within the USA at this time. Some years later this piece, with one minor reverse field "test mark" gently visible, and featuring the bold date digits, was offered by Jim Elmen in his auction #50 where it fetched over $12,000 and sold to the excellent Fred Mayer collection."
Costa Rica officially switched from the peso to the colon in 1897, which currency was reformed again in 1917 and 1920. This type was struck 1870-72.
Recorded mintage: 30,000.
Specification: 14.67 g, 0.875 fine gold, .412 troy oz ASW, reeded edge.
Catalog reference: KM 115.
- [1]Tucker, Warren, and Cristiano Bierrenbach, World and Ancient Coins sale 3019, Dallas: Heritage Auction Galleries, 2012.
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Gurdian, Raul, Contribucion al Estudio de las Monedas de Costa Rica: 100 Años de Colon, 2a Ed., San José, Costa Rica, 1997.
- Stickney, Brian, A Monetary History of Central America, New York: American Numismatic Society, 2017.
Link to: