Watch List notes:

Mexico City, Mexico, cob 8 reales Royal (galano), 1728/6/5 assayer D, PHILIPPVS/LVDOVICVS, unique, NGC XF 40, ex-Rudman, ex-Rooswijk (1739). S-M23a; KM-unl; Cal-1381 (overdate not listed). 26.06 grams. The final 8R Royals of Mexico, struck from 1725 to 1730, are all extremely rare (most are unique), and it is only from the reappearance of known specimens onto the market that we have been able to carefully study them (since photography was not as good before) and determine that they were all struck from an obverse die originally engraved in 1725 (the exception being 1727, which for whatever reason was struck from a clean, new die that was either discarded or skipped when the 1728-30 coins were made). Our last auction in May showcased the finest of them, clearly showing the multiple overdate 1730/28/5 and over-assayer R/D, in addition to the re-engraving of the king's name and ordinal from LVDOVICVS I to PHILIPPVS V, incidentally preserving the oddly spaced double ornaments flanking the ordinal, per Lazaro #90 under Louis I, dated 1725. The current example, currently unique and presumably the immediate predecessor to the 1730 coin just mentioned, as it shows the overdate as 1728/6/5 and no over-assayer (this date not listed in Lazaro), has the additional distinction of being one of very few Royals found on shipwrecks (this one, in fact, the only example from the Rooswijk of 1739). All details are typically full and evenly struck on a perfectly round flan with medal alignment, deeply toned and probably Uncirculated when sunk, the surfaces not lustrous or pristine but thankfully not corroded, and also not holed, as it surely would have been if it had circulated over the centuries instead of resting at the bottom of the sea. Pedigreed to the Isaac Rudman Numismatic Cabinet, from the Rooswijk (1739) and to the Ponterio "Rooswijk" auction of March-April 2006 (lot 39).
($25000-50000)