Watch List notes:

Potosi, Bolivia, cob 8 reales, Philip II, assayer C below erasure, rare. S-P5; KM-5.1; Cal-671. 27.38 grams. Another peak of Potosi cob collecting is this C-under-erasure issue of around 1580, struck by assayer Cristobal Ruiz Vizcayno in a brief interlude between assayer-B tenures. It is uncertain whether the erasure between the mintmark and assayer is a B or a B/L, but in any case this is the only time an assayer effaced his predecessor's mark as opposed to over-striking or starting a fresh die. Of this issue there are two obverse dies known--Paoletti 59, Sellschopp 141; Paoletti 60, Sellschopp 140-- the present coin being the latter, with bold full legends and crown, full but weaker shield and cross, the assayer quite bold but the mintmark and denomination flat, lightly cleaned AXF with a few minor flan-cracks and touch of oxidation at edge.


Estimate: 750 - 1100 USD