Bolivia 1733-P E 8 reales

Sedwick sale 34, lot 853

This specimen was lot 853 in Sedwick sale 34 (Winter Park, FL, November 2023), where it sold for $1,440. The catalog description^[1] noted, "Potosí, Bolivia, cob 8 reales, 1733 E with retrograde E/YA on cross side, very rare, ex-Pullin. Chunky flan with 100% full and bold pillars-and-waves and cross-lions-castles, three dates, two clean assayers on pillars side and third assayer E in retrograde punched over YA to right of cross (very clear, first we have seen in this denomination), XF with choice toning. Pedigreed to the John Pullin collection (Ponterio auction of January 2005, with original lot-tag 1606." The Potosí mint was the most prolific issuer of silver during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, nearly all of it cobs such as this. The other Latin American mints placed the date near the edge where it rarely struck up, whereas Potosi issues have the date smack in the middle, ensuring that the date would be legible even if the rest of the design was smeared. As a result, Bolivian cobs can be collected by date, unlike the other mints (Mexico, Lima, Guatemala). This type was struck 1729-47 and assayers "E" and "YA" are recorded for 1733, with "YA" being awarded a slight premium. The Potosí mint was the last to abandon the manufacture of cobs, in 1773.

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 27.07 g, 0.917 fine silver, this specimen 26.88 grams.

Catalog reference: Cayón-9371, S-P46; KM-unl (31a for type); Cal-unl.

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.
• 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.
• Paoletti, Emilio, 8 Reales Cobs of Potosí, 2nd Ed., Buenos Aires, 2006.
• ^[1]Sedwick, Daniel Frank, Augi Garcia, Cori Sedwick Downing and Connor Falk, Treasure Auction 34, World, U.S Coins and Paper Money, Winter Park, FL: Daniel Frank Sedwick LLC, 2023.

Link to:

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• 1733 "royal" real
• 1733-YA 2 reales
• 1733-E 2 reales
• 1733-E 4 reales
• 1733-YA 4 reales
• 1733-YA 8 reales
• Mexico 1733-Mo MF 8 reales
• Mexico 1733-MX F 8 reales
• Mexico 1733-F cob 8 reales
• Mexico 1733-Mo 8 reales klippe
• Mexico 1733-Mo F pillar 8 reales
• Spain 1733-S PA 8 reales
• 1734 8 reales
• Coins and currency dated 1733