File:Colombia SB118-12005o.jpg

This specimen was lot 12005 in Stack's Bowers NYINC sale (New York, January 2018), where it sold for $26,400. The catalog description^[1] noted,

"Unique 1760-JV Half Real of Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino. The Only Known Pillar Half Real of Colombia. COLOMBIA. 1760-JV 1/2 Real. Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino (Bogotá) mint. Carlos III (1759-1788). Restrepo 30.1. Gilboy SF-05-1. VF-30 (PCGS). Medium silver gray and attractive for the grade, with a scattering of old dirt across the fields of both sides. The devices are a bit bright, and some trivial lines are seen, along with a mark on the rim below H at 6:00 on the reverse. A dark stain is noted between QU of QUE atop the obverse. The obverse die is cracked below 176 of the date, perhaps from the die clash that left its incuse evidence between the 7 and 6.

One of the most important of all colonial coins of Colombia, this is the only known Colombian 1/2 Real of the Pillar type from any date or mint. Gilboy cites Burzio and Medina, who noted that 1/2 Reales of the Pillar type were only authorized in this single year. This appears to be the only example of this coinage to have survived in any collection, meaning this issue is missing from every museum and institutional collection as well as all other private cabinets. It is illustrated in Restrepo, Gilboy, and Calicó. Its sole auction offering was in the famous 1991 Ortiz sale, 27 years ago. From the Eldorado Collection of Colombian and Ecuadorian Coins. From Swiss Bank Corp (Basel)'s Auktion 27 of the Emilio Ortiz Collection, September 1991, lot 253."