St. Thomas and Prince 1929 10 centavos
The first specimen was lot 72216 in Stack's Bowers Collector's Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, October 2021), where it sold for $115. The catalog description[1] noted, "SAINT THOMAS & PRINCE. 10 Centavos, 1929. Lisbon Mint. NGC MS-67. Tied with just two other specimens for the top spot in the NGC census, this dazzling minor offers steely gray surfaces with resounding luster." This type was minted in Lisbon for the Portuguese colony of Sao Tomé e Principe in 1929. It was accompanied by nickel-bronze twenty and fifty centavos. The coin is not rare, tho hard to find in nice condition. The colony, originally a slave trading station, later turned to sugar production and finally cacao. The Portuguese withdrew in 1975.
Recorded mintage: 500,000.
Specification: nickel bronze.
Catalog reference: KM-2.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The October 2021 Collector's Choice sale: World and Ancient Coins, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2021.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
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