1813 Sunface 2 Reales - Argentina and Uruguay's First Coinage

Found this auction on Ebay with a few hours remaining and it was still sitting at a pretty low price. Decided to place a bid and ended up winning it for just a hair under $50, before shipping.




The early 1800s was a tumultuous time in Latin America with most of the republics gaining their independence. As I understand this coinage was struck at the Potosi mint under revolutionary control. Only four 1813 2Rs have been auctioned on Heritage in the last decade, attesting to the scarcity of this piece. It's not a particularly pretty one, but it's not like one has a great deal of choice with these. Hope you enjoy this coin.

 

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They are cool coins, outside of my realm of knowledge, though.
Cool pickup.

 

That is an interesting, historical coin and a nice rpurchase at $50.

As you mention, the troops of the central government succeeded in taking over the town of Potosi in 1813 only to have it recaptured by the loyalists soon after. The Argentinian forces then reclaimed it in 1815 resulting in the minting of 1/2, 1, 2, 4 and 8 real coinage as well as coinage denominated in soles.

Your 2 Real is quite a scarce coin. I actually find the Rio de La Plata small denominations, 1/2, 1 2 and 4 reales to be scarcer than the 8 Reales.