Peru 1659-L* V 2 reales

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Sedwick Treasure Auction 35, lot 807
Sed35-0807r.jpg

This specimen was lot 807 in Sedwick Treasure Auction 35 (Winter Park, FL, May 2024), where it sold for $24,000. The catalog description[1] noted, "PERU, Lima, cob 2 reales, 1659 V, mintmark * above LIMA, V to left and 2 to right, very rare, ex-Ponte, ex-"Jupiter Wreck" (1659). Exceptionally bold (albeit off-center) full pillars-and-waves with •V• to left, five-point star above LIM with A monogrammed into M above crowded 1659 date in center, and •2• to right, full cross-lions-castles, peripheries flat, deeply toned UNC with minute surface pitting, still probably the finest extant. Pedigreed to the Luis R. Ponte Collection and to the "Jupiter wreck" (San Miguel el Arcangel, 1659), also pedigreed to Sedwick Auction 5 (lot 261) and Sedwick Auction 16 (lot 498)." In 1659, the viceroy of Peru, Don Luis Enríquez de Guzmán, succumbed to the pleas of the merchant community in Lima and allowed a mint to open there. He did not have royal authorization for this and officials in Madrid were furious when they found out. He was ordered to close the mint forthwith and he was nearly sacked. His sterling record of promptly remitting tax revenue to Spain saved him. The Lima mint was not reopened until 1684.

Wikipedia comments, "Don Luis Enríquez de Guzmán, 9th Count of Alba de Liste (born c. 1605) was viceroy of New Spain from June 28, 1650 to August 14, 1653 and thereafter viceroy of Peru, from February 24, 1655 to December 31, 1661). There had been a royal mint in Lima briefly, with the king's permission, beginning in 1565, but it was soon closed. Now because of a shortage of coinage, Enríquez de Guzmán ordered it reopened in December 1658, but without the royal authority to do so. It produced coins of 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4 and 8 reales from January 1659 to April 1660, as well as 1 and 8 escudos from September 1659 to April 1660. These are known today as Estrellas de Lima (Stars of Lima), due to the large star featured in their design. Surviving examples are very rare."

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 6.77 g, 0.931 fine silver, this specimen 6.55 grams.

Catalog reference: Cayón-5970; S-L5; KM-16; Cal-839.

Source:

  • Cayón, Adolfo, Clemente Cayón and Juan Cayón, Las Monedas Españolas, del Tremis al Euro: del 411 a Nuestros Dias, 2 volumes, Madrid: Cayón-Jano S.L., 2005.
  • Calicó, Xavier, Numismática Española: Catálogo General con Precios de Todas las Monedas Españolas Acuñadas desde Los Reyes Católicos Hasta Felipe VI, 1474 a 2020, Barcelona: Aureo & Calicó, 2019.
  • Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
  • Menzel, Sewall, Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins, New York: The American Numismatic Society, 2004.
  • [1]Sedwick, Daniel Frank, Augi Garcia, Cori Sedwick Downing and Connor Falk, Treasure Auction 35, World, U.S Coins and Paper Money, Winter Park, FL: Daniel Frank Sedwick LLC, 2024.

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