File:Colombia 1760 real Sedwick 11 0982.jpg

Bogota, Colombia, pillar 1 real, Charles III, 1760JV, ex-Emilio Ortiz, Restrepo plate coin, very rare one-year issue and finest specimen on public record. KM-34; Restrepo-36.1; CT-1623. 3.4 grams. We begin the landmark offering of the Jorge Ortiz Murias collection with a single "pillar" piece, one of only 5 different Colombian pillar issues confirmed to exist (8R 1759, 1762 and 1770; and 1R and 1/2R 1760), and one of only about 12 known of this denomination, almost all holed and/or plugged (which is certainly less desirable than graffiti), whose public appearances are listed here in chronological order: Freeman Craig, December 1978 and May 1987; Ponterio, February 1993, June 1984 and March 1991 (Amat collection); Bonhams (Patterson collection), July 1996; Tarkis (Madrid), 2001; Cayon, November 2004; Herrero, May 2005; Boletin #62 of the Fundacion Numismaticos de Colombia (Bogota); the Calico plate coin (Numismatica española, 2008); and the plate coin in Restrepo's Monedas de Colombia (2009). The present specimen is a solid XF, very lightly toned and well struck, whose only flaw is a pair of letters, P and H, either punched or engraved into the fields to the sides of the crown above the shield, wistfully described in the auction catalog for the Emilio Ortiz collection as "incused letters 'PH' neatly placed beside the crown much like King Philip V might have preferred when he first authorized the pillar series in 1729." Pedigreed to the Emilio Ortiz collection (Swiss Bank Corp., January 1991, lot 252), and plate coin in Restrepo's Monedas Coloniales Circulares (1999). Jorge Ortiz Murias collection of Colombian colonial minors.