Hi, I'm hoping someone here can help me figure out what the mintmark is on this 1774 Carolus III 1 reale. The assayer is J.R., I believe (supposedly a scarce variety I hear?) but I'm not able to recognize the mintmark. Perhaps if somone more knowledgeable of the possible mints could help me out here, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!
I believe it's a Potosi coin. On the left side of tne bottom coin you might see a symbol which looks like this $ or the St Louis Cardinal logo. Take Care Ben
Yeah, on close examination it looks like a $ or a doctors symbol (the pole & snake). I had no idea if that was what it was supposed to look like or if it was a damaged letter. Thanks very much acanthite and bonedigger! Is that correct that the "J.R." assayer is a scarcer variety? I'd assume these coins were pretty common to begin with anyway...
Not sure, GPDSMP is the Board Expert on this series and possibly he'll chime in in a bit. Take Care Ben
It's a P, T and S (for "PoToSi") all superimposed on one another. Potosi was one of the most important silver strikes in the New World and had a prolific output.
From the Standard catalog I see only JR as an assayer for this year, meaning there is only this variety. Or at least it is by far the most common, since the catalog is not very detailed with this coinage. These reales coins are great historical pieces however, nice to see them at CT.
