Peru 1710-L H 4 escudos
This specimen was lot 43 in Sedwick Treasure Auction 38 (Winter Park, FL, November 2025), where it sold for $28,800. The catalog description[1] noted, "PERU, Lima, gold cob 4 escudos, 1710 H, rare, NGC MS 62 (1715 Fleet Shipwreck Label), ex-Real Eight, ex-McGregor. Superb full cross-lions-castles with every detail sharp, also bold full pillars-and-waves (slightly off-center) with 1 of date punched over a circular area that is likely an erasure of a 0 in the die, along with a possible 0/0 or 0/9 for the final digit (hence could be a unique and unlisted 1710/09 overdate), muted luster and rich gold color. From the 1715 Fleet, with Sedwick photo-certificate, pedigreed to the Real Eight Co. (Schulman auction of November 1972, lot 593, also Christensen auction of December 1981, lot 790) and to the McGregor Collection (stated on label)." Gold coins from colonial Peru are much scarcer than those from Colombian mints. Assayer Hurtado stamped his coins 1695-1710. Cobs were struck at Lima until 1752, twenty years after Mexico City had switched to milled coinage.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 13.54 g, 0.917 fine gold, this specimen 13.48 grams.
Catalog reference: S-L25a; Cal-2004; KM-37; Fr-8, Cayón-9800.
- Cayón, Adolfo, Clemente Cayón and Juan Cayón, Las Monedas Españolas, del Tremis al Euro: del 411 a Nuestros Dias, vol. 1, 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.
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- Menzel, Sewall, Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins, New York: The American Numismatic Society, 2004.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- [1]Sedwick, Daniel Frank, Augi Garcia, Cori Sedwick Downing, Connor Falk and Sarah Sproles, Auction 38, World, U.S Coins and Paper Money, featuring the Jorge Ugaz Collection of Lima Silver Cob 2 Reales and the Darby Collection of Guatemala Silver Cobs, Winter Park, FL: Daniel Frank Sedwick LLC, 2025.
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