Watch List notes:

Bogota, Colombia, pillar 1 real, Charles III, 1760JV, NGC VF details / graffiti, ex-Emilio Ortiz, ex-Jorge Ortiz Murias, Restrepo Plate Coin. Restrepo-36.1. One of only six different Colombian pillar issues confirmed to exist (8R 1759, 1760/59, 1762 and 1770; 1R and 1/2R 1760), and one of only about fifteen known of this denomination, almost all holed and/or plugged (which is certainly less desirable than graffiti), the present specimen very lightly toned and well struck, whose only flaw is a pair of letters, P and H, either punched or engraved into the fields to the sides of the crown above the shield (the letters notably matching the typography of various engraved-coin tokens we have seen from the 1700s), wistfully described in the auction catalog for the Emilio Ortiz collection as "incused letters 'PH' neatly placed beside the crown much like King Philip V might have preferred when he first authorized the pillar series in 1729." For current price reference we note that a VF35 (PCGS) recently sold for $16,450 (including buyer's fee) in Heritage. NGC #4188188-002. Pedigreed to the Emilio Ortiz collection (Swiss Bank Corp., January 1991, lot 252), and Plate Coin in Restrepo's Monedas Coloniales Circulares (1999), and pedigreed to the Jorge Ortiz Murias collection of Colombian colonial minors (our Auction #11, lot #982).
($3500-5000)