Lazareto 1921-RH 50 centavos token
This specimen was lot 1012 in Sedwick Auction 37 (Winter Park, FL, May 2025), where it sold for $8,400. The catalog description[1] noted, "COLOMBIA, Bogotá, copper-nickel 50 centavos, 1921-RH, Lazareto, NGC MS 63, finest and only example in NGC census, Restrepo Plate (stated on label), Yepes Plate. Choice luster and faint rainbow toning, unique grade, the largest denomination of the finest denomination set in existence (see next four lots). Plate Coin on page 238 of Restrepo's Coins of Colombia (4th edition, 2012) and on page 126 of Lepra y Coleccionismo en Colombia (2011), by Andrés Yepes Pérez." Leprosy, a wasting and disfiguring disease, has aroused fear and panic in societies around the world since Biblical times. To reduce contagion, victims were confined to leprosariums. In 1897, a medical conference in Berlin proposed the use of special money therein to prevent the spread of the disease. This was taken up in several countries, including Panama, Colombia, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia and elsewhere. Copper-nickel coins were issued for the leprosaria (Agua de Dios, Caño de Loro, and Contratación) in Colombia in denominations of one to fifty centavos. It was proven in the 1950's that the disease did not contaminate money and leprosarium coinage was gradually withdrawn. By that time, these coins were heavily worn. This example realized 280 times the catalog value.
Recorded mintage: 120,000.
Specification: 9.8 g, copper-nickel, 30 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: Restrepo-417; KM-L13.
- Almanzar, Alcedo, and Dale Seppa, Coins of Colombia, San Antonio, TX: 1973.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Restrepo, Jorge Emilio, Monedas de Colombia, 1619-2006, Medellin, Colombia: Impresiones Rojo, 2006.
- [1]Sedwick, Daniel Frank, Augi Garcia, Cori Sedwick Downing, Connor Falk and Sarah Sproles, Treasure Auction 37, World, U.S Coins and Paper Money, featuring the Almenara Collection of Colonial Peruvian Gold Coins, Winter Park, FL: Daniel Frank Sedwick LLC, 2025.
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