Peru 1747-L V 2 reales
This specimen was lot 1333 in Stephen Album sale 50 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2024), where it sold for $180. The catalog description[1] noted, "PERU: Felipe V, 1700-1746, AR 2 reales, 1747-L, assayer V, cob coinage, one date, two mintmarks, two assayers, most of cross visible, F-VF." Despite pleas from locals in Lima for a mint, Spanish authorities preferred to concentrate coinage production at Potosi in Upper Peru. The mint was shuttered multiple times by orders from Spain, not to reopen permanently until 1684. Cob two reales were struck at the Lima mint 1701-46 for Philip V of Spain and became the "two bits" of pirate lore. Specimens with legible dates bring triple those without. The fineness was lowered from 0.931 to 0.917 in 1728.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 6.77 g, 0.917 fine silver, this specimen 7.11 g.
Catalog reference: Cayón-8926; KM-32a.
- 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.
- 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]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 50, featuring selections from the Dr. Robert A. Rosenfeld Collection, the Hakim Hamidi Collection, the Almer H. Orr III Collection and the Solar Collection, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2024.
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