Mexico 1779-Mo FF 8 reales

Goldberg sale 46, lot 1098

photo courtesy Ira & Larry Goldberg

from the Mountain Groan Collection

The first specimen was lot 1098 in Goldberg sale 46 (Beverly Hills, May 2008), where it sold for $6,750. The catalog description^[1] noted,

"Mexico. 8 Reales, 1779 Mo-F.F. Charles III, 1759-1788. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Charles III right. Reverse: Crowned Bourbon arms, flanked by bannered pillars. Superbly struck, with glittering devices on reflective fields. Some faint harlines, othwerwise pristine surfaces. A superb coin. NGC graded MS-62 Prooflike.

"During the 17th and 18th centuries the wealth that issued from Spain's New World mines was vast - almost beyond comprehension. In fact from 1500 through 1800, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico accounted for over 85 percent of the world's production and trade of silver. This huge resource helped to make Spanish coins the most commonly accepted currency in the world. The Spanish Real, or 'royal,' lives on today as the Rial in Oman and Yemen, and alternatively as the Riyal in Saudi Arabia. The Spanish Reales are also the basis on which most of the currencies of the English-speaking New World were originally based. In those countries, however, the already familiar word, Dollar, was preferred. Provenance: Ex Sansores Collection."

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 27.07 g, 0.903 fine silver, .786 troy oz ASW; this specimen: 26.99 grams.

Catalog reference: Cayón-12064, Eliz-89; WR-11; KM-106.2.

Source:

• 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.
• ^[1]Goldberg, Ira, and Larry Goldberg, Goldberg Sale 46: the Millenia Collection, Beverly Hills, CA: Ira and Larry Goldberg Auctioneers, 2008.
• Harris, Robert P., Pillars & Portraits, San José, CA: Bonanza Press, 1968.
• Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
• Elizondo, Carlos A., Eight Reales and Pesos of the New World, San Antonio, TX: 1968.
• Raymond, Wayte, The Silver Dollars of North and South America, 2nd Ed., Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing, 1964.

Links to:

• 1778-FF 8 reales
• 1778-FM 8 reales
• 1779 ½ real
• 1779 4 reales
• Bolivia 1779-PTS PR 8 reales
• Chile 1779-So DA 8 reales
• Guatemala 1779-NG P 8 reales
• Peru 1779-L MJ 8 reales
• 1779 4 escudos
• 1779 8 escudos
• 1780 8 reales
• Coins and currency dated 1779
• other specimens in The Millenia Collection
• return to Mexican colonial coinage, 1536-1822