Stack's Bowers & Ponterio
January 2018 NYINC Auction 11-13 Jan 2018
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
COLOMBIA. 1627-T 4 Reales. Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino (Bogotá) mint. Philip IV (1621-1665). Restrepo M35.2. VF Detail - Chop Mark (PCGS).
13.65 grams. The only known coin struck by Assayer T, thought to be none other than the founder of the Santa Fe mint, Alonso Turrillo. Sedwick's Practical Book of Cobs mentions this precise coin: "T. 1627 (?). Probably Alonso Turrillo himself, acting as an interim assayer prior to the arrival of Pinto (B4 below). Only a single specimen (4 Reales) has been found so far with this assayer mark, and its date is believed to be 1627." This is that coin, published in 1958 but unseen since. The T assayer mark is crisp and bold to the right of the shield, beneath the IIII denomination. The date is also clear, on the right side of the reverse, with 162 perfectly legible and the final 7 somewhat obscured by a planchet void but still clear under magnification. PHILLIPPV is clear, and the color and metal quality is superb on both sides. The PCGS mention of "chop mark" is puzzling, as this coin shows no chop mark and likely never left Colombia until very recently. The cross decoration after the date stands out from the poorly struck area around it, perhaps confusing the graders.
This coin appears to be the only survivor from the very first issue of 4 Reales struck in Bogotá, signed by the founder of the Santa Fe and Cartagena mints. Few 4 Reales coined in what became Colombia could be considered more historically important. Its aesthetic appeal and overall quality serve to magnify its interest.
From the Eldorado Collection of Colombian and Ecuadorian Coins.
13.65 grams. The only known coin struck by Assayer T, thought to be none other than the founder of the Santa Fe mint, Alonso Turrillo. Sedwick's Practical Book of Cobs mentions this precise coin: "T. 1627 (?). Probably Alonso Turrillo himself, acting as an interim assayer prior to the arrival of Pinto (B4 below). Only a single specimen (4 Reales) has been found so far with this assayer mark, and its date is believed to be 1627." This is that coin, published in 1958 but unseen since. The T assayer mark is crisp and bold to the right of the shield, beneath the IIII denomination. The date is also clear, on the right side of the reverse, with 162 perfectly legible and the final 7 somewhat obscured by a planchet void but still clear under magnification. PHILLIPPV is clear, and the color and metal quality is superb on both sides. The PCGS mention of "chop mark" is puzzling, as this coin shows no chop mark and likely never left Colombia until very recently. The cross decoration after the date stands out from the poorly struck area around it, perhaps confusing the graders.
This coin appears to be the only survivor from the very first issue of 4 Reales struck in Bogotá, signed by the founder of the Santa Fe and Cartagena mints. Few 4 Reales coined in what became Colombia could be considered more historically important. Its aesthetic appeal and overall quality serve to magnify its interest.
From the Eldorado Collection of Colombian and Ecuadorian Coins.
From a hoard discovered by Clyde Hubbard in Medellín in the 1950s and subsequently published by Robert I. Nesmith. Plated in Nesmith's "A Hoard of the First Silver Coins of Nuevo Reino de Granada (Colombia)," 1958, coin #2, illustrated on plate XXIX and in a line drawing on p. 516.
Estimate: $1500.00- $3000.00