El Salvador 1894-CAM 50 centavos
This specimen was lot 71507 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, November 2022), where it sold for $4,080. The catalog description[1] noted, "EL SALVADOR. 50 Centavos, 1894-CAM. Central American (San Salvador) Mint. PCGS MS-62. A brilliant Mint State example of this popular type. This piece features an impressive portrait of Columbus surrounded by full mint luster. The reverse devices are no less well-produced, interrupted only by a few adjustment marks. The surfaces are attractively toned with a hint of caramel color intermingled with spots of deeper hues. This stately piece is certain to please the next collector who adds it to their collection. From the Pat Johnson Collection." This scarce type was struck in 1892 for El Salvador as part of the introduction of decimal coinage to that unhappy land. Prior to the Heaton mint one centavos of 1889, El Salvador used various foreign (mostly Guatemalan) and countermarked coins. The series of 1892 included a centavo (bronze), five, ten, twenty, fifty centavos and peso (silver), and various gold pieces (all very rare). The original fifty centavos with the flag was supplanted that year by this fifty centavos with the bust of Christopher Colombus, which type was struck until 1894.
Recorded mintage: 163,000.
Specification: 12.50 g, 0.900 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM-113.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The November 2022 Collectors Choice Ancient & World Coins Auction, Featuring the Pat Johnson Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2022.
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