Heritage World Coin Auctions
CICF Signature Sale 3046 14-15 April 2016
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Costa Rica
Republic Type I Countermarked 8 Reales ND (1841-1842) Very Good, San Jose mint, KM-unl. Base coin Peru Republic 8 Reales 1836 LM-JP, Good with no major defects, countermark Very Fine, punch mark on obverse between "FIRME" and "Y". Relatively available as an undercoin, yet rare and popular and highly collectible as such.From the Pura Vida Collection, Part II -----Intro------Costa Rica Series of Foreign Silver Coins Regulated in 1841-1842The "Carrillo star" series of countermarked coins is historically significant because it effectively represents the first official act of regulating coinage for Costa Rica acting as an independent Republic, shortly after its separation under head of state Braulio Carrillo (1800 – 1844, head of state of Costa Rica between 1838-1842) from the Central American Federation on November 15, 1838. It is not widely known that the regulation of silver coins initially concerned only Peruvian (standing liberty type) and Honduran coins (with the design of the Central American Republic) and only mandated the countermarking (with the "arms of that state") of those coins that were determined to be of acceptable fineness (thus near .900) and did not consider the removal of the silver plug. This operation was decided after examining a few Peruvian coins "dated 1835, which seemed entirely acceptable at first glance, but were found to be of [almost?] pure copper after being analyzed; and considering that their dies and edge design were well made so that it proves difficult to distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit one, which is also the case for the coinage of Honduras". The latter reference was obviously pointed at the successive series of increasingly debased issues of "Moneda Provisional del Estado de Honduras" with the design of the Central American Federation which by 1841 were of only 0.200 fineness (KM18a and KM19a) which had to be differentiated from the full fineness "Republica de Centro America" issues minted in Honduras in 1830 (KM19.2 and KM9.1-3). The reference to Peruvian coins of 4 Reales dated 1835 is obviously to the KM151.1 type of debased (.666 fineness) coins minted at Cuzco in 1835-1836 since no other coins of 4 Reales had been previously issued by Independent Peru. Whether the examined coins were the official (but debased, as mentioned) or contemporary counterfeit ones is unclear although the cataloger feels inclined to think they were indeed genuine coins and that the "pure copper" comment was a dismissive and intentionally harsh one.Only two days later, by act of November 22 it was decided to regulate all silver coins of acceptable fineness (since "counterfeiters did not respect [and could thus imitate] any type [of coinage]") with a clearly laid out procedure: the regulation would be carried out "by removing a small plug in a location which would not damage the arms or legends [thus in the open fields], in order to compensate for the operation... and the stamping on the center [of the coin] of the coat of arms of the State". The latter stamp naturally refers to the well-known circular 6mm punch with a six-pointed star. Since the coins had to be examined prior to their regulation to ensure their genuineness, a test mark was also applied which correspond to the small circular punch mark always found on this issue, normally at the same position between similar coins.The resulting series of regulated silver coins is both iconic (the first official coinage of Costa Rica as an independent republic, as noted previously) and highly collectible with a several resulting countermarked undertypes. It is also a challenging series since all of these undertypes are rare, and some are extremely so. The following offering "Carrillo star" regulated silver coins from Part II of the Pura Vida Collection represents the most comprehensive group of these issues ever offered for public consideration, vastly surpassing Mayer (4 different coins, Spink Smythe 10, 2008), Lines (11 regulated coins from a legendary Costa Rican old collection, H. Christensen 5/1984) and Gibbs (H. Schulman 3, 1966). As a gathering of 18 (14 in Signature Floor and 4 in Signature Internet Sessions) different such coins, which is nothing short or remarkable, including several examples not noted in Murillo's recent and comprehensive census, it is undoubtedly an opportunity unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.
Estimate: 2000-2500 USD
Republic Type I Countermarked 8 Reales ND (1841-1842) Very Good, San Jose mint, KM-unl. Base coin Peru Republic 8 Reales 1836 LM-JP, Good with no major defects, countermark Very Fine, punch mark on obverse between "FIRME" and "Y". Relatively available as an undercoin, yet rare and popular and highly collectible as such.From the Pura Vida Collection, Part II -----Intro------Costa Rica Series of Foreign Silver Coins Regulated in 1841-1842The "Carrillo star" series of countermarked coins is historically significant because it effectively represents the first official act of regulating coinage for Costa Rica acting as an independent Republic, shortly after its separation under head of state Braulio Carrillo (1800 – 1844, head of state of Costa Rica between 1838-1842) from the Central American Federation on November 15, 1838. It is not widely known that the regulation of silver coins initially concerned only Peruvian (standing liberty type) and Honduran coins (with the design of the Central American Republic) and only mandated the countermarking (with the "arms of that state") of those coins that were determined to be of acceptable fineness (thus near .900) and did not consider the removal of the silver plug. This operation was decided after examining a few Peruvian coins "dated 1835, which seemed entirely acceptable at first glance, but were found to be of [almost?] pure copper after being analyzed; and considering that their dies and edge design were well made so that it proves difficult to distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit one, which is also the case for the coinage of Honduras". The latter reference was obviously pointed at the successive series of increasingly debased issues of "Moneda Provisional del Estado de Honduras" with the design of the Central American Federation which by 1841 were of only 0.200 fineness (KM18a and KM19a) which had to be differentiated from the full fineness "Republica de Centro America" issues minted in Honduras in 1830 (KM19.2 and KM9.1-3). The reference to Peruvian coins of 4 Reales dated 1835 is obviously to the KM151.1 type of debased (.666 fineness) coins minted at Cuzco in 1835-1836 since no other coins of 4 Reales had been previously issued by Independent Peru. Whether the examined coins were the official (but debased, as mentioned) or contemporary counterfeit ones is unclear although the cataloger feels inclined to think they were indeed genuine coins and that the "pure copper" comment was a dismissive and intentionally harsh one.Only two days later, by act of November 22 it was decided to regulate all silver coins of acceptable fineness (since "counterfeiters did not respect [and could thus imitate] any type [of coinage]") with a clearly laid out procedure: the regulation would be carried out "by removing a small plug in a location which would not damage the arms or legends [thus in the open fields], in order to compensate for the operation... and the stamping on the center [of the coin] of the coat of arms of the State". The latter stamp naturally refers to the well-known circular 6mm punch with a six-pointed star. Since the coins had to be examined prior to their regulation to ensure their genuineness, a test mark was also applied which correspond to the small circular punch mark always found on this issue, normally at the same position between similar coins.The resulting series of regulated silver coins is both iconic (the first official coinage of Costa Rica as an independent republic, as noted previously) and highly collectible with a several resulting countermarked undertypes. It is also a challenging series since all of these undertypes are rare, and some are extremely so. The following offering "Carrillo star" regulated silver coins from Part II of the Pura Vida Collection represents the most comprehensive group of these issues ever offered for public consideration, vastly surpassing Mayer (4 different coins, Spink Smythe 10, 2008), Lines (11 regulated coins from a legendary Costa Rican old collection, H. Christensen 5/1984) and Gibbs (H. Schulman 3, 1966). As a gathering of 18 (14 in Signature Floor and 4 in Signature Internet Sessions) different such coins, which is nothing short or remarkable, including several examples not noted in Murillo's recent and comprehensive census, it is undoubtedly an opportunity unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.
Estimate: 2000-2500 USD