I'm not being able to acquire a few 8R Mexican coins, but so far I had yet to add anything smaller to my collection...until now. It's tiny, got good toning, and it scratches off another ruler from my list. Please feel free to show any relevant coins you may have and wish to share.
Very nice! At one point I considered doing a type set of 1/2 R through 8R but for now have decided to just stick to the 8R (which I wanted the most out of all of them).
The Columnario - one of the most attractive coin designs of the modern era. Nice one, @Sallent ! I collect Santiago and Lima mints: Lima 1 Real 1753/2. Quite scarce per Gilboy. The Lima 1766 1 Real is the rarest date of the Lima series. A unique 1751 exists, most likely a pattern. This example is the best out of 5 known Lima 1766 reales. I understand the most up-to-date guidebook and catalog on the Columnarios of the New World is Brad Yonaka's work.
Those are wonderful examples of Spanish colonial 1/2 and 1 real coins! The Mexican 1768 8 reales is also very nice. Congrats!
I don't know Brad Yonaka's work, but I find that the "Guia de las Cantidades Acuñadas, Cecas de Potosi y Lima" by Dr Glen Murray has everything you need to know on these two mints, except values, undertstandably as printed values are out of date as soon as they are published. Dr Murray is Spain's leading numismatist with special interest in the mints of Potosi, Lima, Arequipa and Cuzco. The author of numerous publications and winner of the 2009 European Heritage Award, amongst other distinctions, he is A US citizen, born in LA in 1952 who has lived in Segovia (40 minutes from Madrid) since 1987. Among his achievements, he was the driving force behind the restoration of the ruined and abandoned Royal Segovia Mint (closed in 1869), the world's oldest industrial factory-
I've only got one half real and one 8 reales, but I'm always on the lookout for more. Neither of them are uncirculated but that's ok by me. Those are all really nice looking examples you've all shown!
I was hoping to add a pillar coin to my collection this evening during Heritage's JBR Collection auction...nope! Was consistently outbid even after I got irritated and bid past my max. Oh well, it's not like these are particularly scarce!
When I first started collecting world coins, I concentrated on the milled colonial and republican coinage of Mexico, but also to a lesser extent other Latin American countries including Peru, Bolivia and Guatemala. My focus centered almost entirely on 8 reales, with a smattering of 4 and 2 reales. This interest was stimulated by the history of these countries, and my sources back then included Freeman Craig, Ponterio and Associates, Richard Long as well as dealers including Hal Blackburn and Pat Johnson. This is still the foundation of my world collection, though over the past ten years or so I've been working on ancient coinage. Choice colonial and republican coinage of all denominations have always been a challenge to collect. True, cap and rays 8 reales in average circulated condition were in coffee cans, sold at melt, but it was fun to go through the grimy coins to look for scarcer dates and mints. I no longer have any of those coins, sold or traded in years past, so what I have now are coins that are higher grade or rare as types. That OP coin is a very choice minor and difficult to locate that nice. I used to have a colonial 1/2 real of Mexico, but that was sold in the distant foggy (for me) past. Here's an 8 reales of Ferdinand VI, 1756, a relatively common date, but in nice condition: New Spain, Mexico, 8 reales, Ferdinand VI, 1756 MM. KM 401.2 26.80 grams Early on I became very interested in the coinage of Mexico's War of Independence. Copper "SUDS" were readily available back in the 1980s. This abundant token coinage was supposed to be redeemable for silver at a later date - never happened. Here's one that I've owned since around 1981, purchased from a coin shop in Milpitas, California during a lunch break. Mexico, War of Independence, Morelos, SUD AE 8 reales, 1813. KM 234 19 grams I was lucky to win a very rare hammer-struck silver Morelos 8 reales from Richard Long many years later, and it wasn't cheap! Mexico, War of Independence, Morelos AR 8 reales SUD, 1812. KM 234.a 27.7 grams My republican Mexico 8 reales collection is a type set. I never tried to collect all of the mint/date/assayer combinations. That in itself is a lifetime pursuit. Here's one from Chihuahua, minted during the French occupation of Mexico in the early 1860s. Mexico, Republic, Chihuahua, 8 reales, 1864 JC. KM 377.2 27.45 grams
