File:Colombia SB118-11110o.jpg

This specimen was lot 11110 in Stack's Bowers NYINC sale (New York, January 2018), where it sold for $7,800. The catalog description^[1] noted,

"COLOMBIA. (1655)-CS Real. Cartagena mint. Philip IV (1621-1665). Restrepo M26.1. EF-45 (PCGS). 3.32 grams. One of the great rarities of the Colombian cob series, this appears to be the only surviving example of the Real issue of the rare 1655 production of Cartagena. This coin serves as the plate coin in Krause-Mishler (which terms it unique), Calicó, Restrepo, Restrepo-Lasser, and Lasser's 1992 article in the American Journal of Numismatics on the cobs of Cartagena, and it was singled out for mention in a brief essay penned by Henry Christensen in his sale of May 1982. Lovely multicolor toning enriches the recesses and contrasts with silver gray design elements. The obverse shows the full extent of the right pillar, about half of the left, along with parts of the central legend. The reverse, aligned to the left, is soft at the left side of the shield but ideally positioned to allow for the complete CS letters right of the shield to be visible. Excellent aesthetic appeal, superb metal quality, a very choice coin before even considering the fact that this appears to be the only collectible specimen. This coin has never before been offered at public auction. From the Eldorado Collection of Colombian and Ecuadorian Coins. From a hoard discovered by Clyde Hubbard in Medellín in the 1950s and subsequently published by Robert I. Nesmith. Plated in Nesmith's "A Hoard of the First Silver Coins of Nuevo Reino de Granada (Colombia)," 1958, coin #10i, illustrated on plate XXXI and in a line drawing on p. 529."