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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;robinjojo, post: 8226828, member: 110226&quot;]Nice coin.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If you are new to collecting this series, I suggest that you purchase from an experienced, reliable dealer.&nbsp; There are lots of fakes out there, most of them quite obvious, but they can be tricky, especially for a new collector.&nbsp; Karl Stephens, CNG, and the Mexican Coin Company (they sell other Latin American coins) of Carefree, AZ are three that come to mind.&nbsp; You&#039;ll pay more with these dealers, but at the same time you&#039;ll have someone who will back up the purchase.</p><p><br /></p><p>Next, you need to get examples from the other colonial mints!&nbsp; Mexico is by far the easiest, followed by Lima (scarce to rare, depending on date), Potosi (again scarce to rare), Guatemala (very scarce to rare).&nbsp; The two other mints that produced pillar &quot;two worlds&quot; 8 reales, Santiago and Bogota are extremely rare and seldom appear on the market.</p><p><br /></p><p>As with your Mexican pillar, the Lima 8 reales of the late 1760s and 1770-72 are generally available.&nbsp; As with coins in general the high grades command the highest prices, but if you are will to settle for a nice mid-grade coin, the field will open up for you.</p><p><br /></p><p>Potosi pillars can be pricey, especially in high grade.&nbsp; Some collectors regard the 1770 Potosi pillar dollar to be among the most beautiful of the series.&nbsp; Again, mid-grade (VF-EF) coins are generally more affordable.&nbsp; Potosi had a much more limited run producing these coins, from 1767 to 1770, when the milled coins were discontinued until the portrait coins of Charles III started in 1773.&nbsp; The dates 1769 and 1770 are generally the most available, especially the latter.</p><p><br /></p><p>Guatemala milled pillars are crude, idiosyncratic and are the odd-balls of the series, which are the main reasons why I love them!&nbsp; That said, they are expensive, often holed (a practice of the indigenous population, whose clothing lacked pockets, hence the hole to accommodate a string or rope), and the strike can vary from acceptable to downright awful.&nbsp; The date 1768 is the most common, followed by the smaller flan issues of 1770 and 1771.&nbsp; If you can land a nice VF that hasn&#039;t been holed or repaired, you&#039;re ahead of the game.</p><p><br /></p><p>I need to photograph more of my pillars, but here&#039;s what I have so far:</p><p><br /></p><p>Guatemala, 1770 P</p><p><br /></p><p>ex Ponterio</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1445771[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Potosi, Bolivia, 1770 JR</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1445772[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Looks like I need to get on my horse and take some more pics![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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