Mexico Coin Experts Needed. (What Do I have here?)1880 5 Centavo

I am lost looking for information on this coin. What coin do I have. I was told a possible "mule".

Thanks!!!

 

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I think the key is the As L mint mark. Alamos. I don't see that mint mark indicated in Krause for the 1880 5 Centavos. They only show Pi H, Zs S, Do B, Go S, and Mo M Mint marks. The As L is indicated for the 10 centavos however. Perhaps this is what you are looking for.

 

NGC's website shows only 12,000 minted?

 

Don Bailey's recently published, Whitman Encyclopedia of Mexican Money Vol. 1 (p209) lists the following for Republic Decimal coinage at Alamos:

The mint opened in 1864 for the issuance of federal coinage and closed in 1895.

Mintmarks for Republic decimal coinage struck at the Alamos mint are "A" with an "s" above the "A" and As.

The assayer initials are "DL" or "L" for Domingo Larraguibel (1874-1895) and "L" for Manuel Larraguibel (1878-1895).

5 Centavos, 0.9027 silver, 1.353 gram, diameter 15mm, Edge: Milled

The 1880 date is shown in this book with comment:

"Mule, gold peso obverse".

He gives the catalog numbers: BW-253.5, KM-398

The Bailey book lists no mintage figure.

In addition...

I looked it up on Numista (link) for mintage, but they do not have it specifically listed with the date/mm.

A search for KM-398 on Numismaster.com "Find My Coin" and the info differs only slightly with: "Fineness 0.903, Weight 1.353g, ASW 0.0393 oz."


In my opinion, the Bailey information is about the best, most accurate and up to date reference material available.

 

The date on this coin is crazy! 1880

 

Yep

 

Found a reference in " a guide book of Mexican Coins 1822 to date" by T.V. Buttrey and Clyde Hubbard. The As L was muled with the Gold Peso with a mintage of 12,289. It gives a value of $50 in the grade of F, $75 in VF. It also shows the 1878 As L, Ho A, and 1879 As L with the same Mule designation. The copyright date on the book is 1989 so I would assume the values would be greater today. Nice Coin!

 

Guide books are never a good source of values. They are pretty antiquated systems to even still be printed in books at all. Publishers could save a bundle and a few trees in the process if they dropped the pricing info all together from printed books. Guide books being published today with prices, in light of auction archives and online databases of such current values, are really showing how out of touch they are in editing and acknowledging what most dealers and collectors already resort to for such information.

The Bailey book I mentioned earlier in this thread was published in 2014 and makes no reference to prices. Instead it's full of useful information and condensed into a slim volume that's easy to look up the coins you need info on.

 

¿ Don't you mean it's, Loco ?

 

I agree 100%. A guide is just that, a guide. That is why I noted: "The copyright date on the book is 1989 so I would assume the values would be greater today." I pre-ordered Baileys book last July but somehow the order got lost. Ordered another copy and should have it later this week. I have purchase several coins from Don Bailey and his son in the past. His site alone is a great reference. A coin is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, but it's nice to know that yours does have a premium. BTW you can get a used 1971 edition of Buttrey/Hubbards book on Don Baileys site for $14. Excellent reference.

 

Cra- crazy. Should I list it or get it slabbed and then list it?

 

What are they selling for slabbed vs un-slabbed? From pics it doesn't seem to have too "pretty" of eye-appeal with that toning, but I'm not familiar with the type to know what condition they tend to exist in.

 

Yes the toning is really unappealing to the eye but at an angle it doesn't look quite bad at all. And yes my light source is horrible.

 

I suppose whatever the value of these turns out to be and given their rarity, if the prices are strong, it may be work verifying/slabbing, but again, I don't know it well at all. Just curious.

I see an 1876 Zs mint marked 5c piece (KM-398.10) sold on Heritage (in 2007) for $39, raw and described in the title as "very rare little piece". link

Not so much else on that auction site.