Guatemala, silver quarter-real, 1898 Obverse: Three volcanic mountain peaks, the central one smoking, sun above, date below. Reverse: Denomination within wreath, five stars below. KM162, .835 silver/.0207 oz., PCGS MS66, cert. #11572895. Ex-Coins To Medals (VCoins store), 9/1/2016. This is a tiny little coin, but sometimes good things come in small packages. With its supergem grade, flashy luster, and attractive toning, it has terrific eye appeal. The catalog value even in Mint State is fairly modest, and I paid many multiples of that for this piece, but considering it's tied with one other for second highest graded at PCGS (pop. 2/1; there is one MS67 graded), I thought it was a nice pickup for less than 75 dollars after shipping. With a mintage of 384,000, it is also the second-lowest mintage for the type. This is another coin that will occasionally serve as a "transitional" piece when my Box of 20 is undergoing changes or other coins are out for grading, etc. Miscellaneous links: PCGS cert verification page NGC/Krause priceguide listing Original dealer listing Wikipedia links: Guatemala 1898 (historical events of the year) When posted here, this coin was an alternate selection for my "Eclectic Box of 20" collection, on an occasional "standby" basis when there was a gap to be filled in the box.
nice little piece. About half of these little south American pieces I've come across have had holes in them. Like this group I got many years ago in a bulk silver purchase when silver was below 10$
I used to have a holed example on my old "Holey Coin Vest", as it happens. Ain't a whole lot of coin left when somebody put a bigger hole in one of these! I suspect this might have been done because these teeny little coins must have been hard to keep track of and quite easy to lose. But I'm sure they were also used in jewelry, particularly among some of the Indian people. I like that little POTOSI piece you have with the llama. Fun little coins.
