Stack's Bowers & Ponterio
January 2018 NYINC Auction 11-13 Jan 2018
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COLOMBIA. 1622-A 8 1/4 Real or Cuartillo. Cartagena mint. Philip IV (1621-1665). Restrepo M11.1. F-15 (PCGS).
2.15 grams. An historical relic from the opening of the mint at Cartagena, this is the finest of just three specimens known. The surfaces are golden gray, microscopically granular but quite well preserved for a billon coin of this era. Both the S mintmark and the A assayer initial on either side of the shield are well struck up, as are most of the fine details within the shield. The king's ordinal IIII is especially bold. On the reverse, the pomegranate is well defined, and the date (in the upper left corner at the periphery) is mostly present, with the base of the 1 visible, 62 bold, and the final digit obscured. The pillars and P / V (for Plus Ultra) are nicely rendered.
The rarest and most important coin in the 1/4 Real series, the 1622 Cuartillo is perhaps the most historic of the rare issues coined in the first year of the Cartagena mint. Herman Blanton, after Juan Friede, put a fine point on it in an article in the July/August 2008 issue of the Numismatics International Bulletin: "the purpose of establishing a subsidiary mint in Cartagena was to produce low silver quarter reals." With a silver fineness of about .186 and about half the actual silver weight of a later Cuartillo, the coins were quickly rejected by the populace, who saw the coins as profiteering by the Mint's administrators and the Crown. This example is one of only three that has survived. It is struck on the broadest planchet and retains the best detail, characteristics that led to its selection as a plate coin in Restrepo-Lasser, Restrepo, Krause-Mishler, and Calicó (which lists this as a Santa Fe 1/2 Real). This piece traces its provenance to the Lasser Collection and is among the highlights of this collection as well.
From the Eldorado Collection of Colombian and Ecuadorian Coins.
2.15 grams. An historical relic from the opening of the mint at Cartagena, this is the finest of just three specimens known. The surfaces are golden gray, microscopically granular but quite well preserved for a billon coin of this era. Both the S mintmark and the A assayer initial on either side of the shield are well struck up, as are most of the fine details within the shield. The king's ordinal IIII is especially bold. On the reverse, the pomegranate is well defined, and the date (in the upper left corner at the periphery) is mostly present, with the base of the 1 visible, 62 bold, and the final digit obscured. The pillars and P / V (for Plus Ultra) are nicely rendered.
The rarest and most important coin in the 1/4 Real series, the 1622 Cuartillo is perhaps the most historic of the rare issues coined in the first year of the Cartagena mint. Herman Blanton, after Juan Friede, put a fine point on it in an article in the July/August 2008 issue of the Numismatics International Bulletin: "the purpose of establishing a subsidiary mint in Cartagena was to produce low silver quarter reals." With a silver fineness of about .186 and about half the actual silver weight of a later Cuartillo, the coins were quickly rejected by the populace, who saw the coins as profiteering by the Mint's administrators and the Crown. This example is one of only three that has survived. It is struck on the broadest planchet and retains the best detail, characteristics that led to its selection as a plate coin in Restrepo-Lasser, Restrepo, Krause-Mishler, and Calicó (which lists this as a Santa Fe 1/2 Real). This piece traces its provenance to the Lasser Collection and is among the highlights of this collection as well.
From the Eldorado Collection of Colombian and Ecuadorian Coins.
Plated in KM, Restrepo.
Estimate: $2000.00- $4000.00