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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;rick, post: 780026, member: 1235&quot;]Here&#039;s an example of when it helps to have a better resource than your SCWC. I picked up this Bolivian 2 Reales a couple years back. It was my first Bolivian columnario.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img src="http://www.rickscoinstop.com/Coin%20Images/1770%20Bolivia%202%20Reales.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>What first attracted me to the coin, is that it was specifically listed as &#039;with dot&#039; (referring to the standard dot found above the mintmark, located at 7:00 on the left side image) - yeah, I know that&#039;s technically photographed backward, it&#039;s a hard habit to break. Anyway, as you can see: no dot at the top of the T.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img src="http://www.rickscoinstop.com/Coin%20Images/mm%20zoom.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>According to the SCWC, there are only two distinct types minted in 1770 - with dot and without. Without dot is listed only as RARE.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>More interesting about this coin, for those who might have the resource, there are three types listed in Gilboy&#039;s &quot;Milled Columnario of Central and South America&quot;, I refer to page 190.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Type one has the dot above the mintmark, and six petalled florets on the technical obverse. It&#039;s listed with a rarity type &quot;N&quot;ormal (500-1,000 pieces probably exist in VF or better).</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Type two has no dot above the mintmark, and five-petalled florets (or cinquefoils) on the obverse. It carried the rarest of the three types at R2 (25 to 50 pieces likely out there in VF and above).</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Last, the third type has a mint mark shifted WAAAAY to the left of the pillar&#039;s base. That one is &quot;S&quot;carce, so 250 to 500 pieces are out there to be found in VF or better.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So, back to my coin... obviously it has no dot above the mint mark, so I rule out the reverse of Type 1. It definitely has six-petalled florets, so I rule out the obverse of Type 2. The mint mark is not to the left of the Pillar, so it does not have the reverse of Type 3. Hmmmmm...</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>New unlisted type? Nope. What I believe this coin to be is a die marriage of the reverse of type 2, with an obverse of type 1 or 3 - hard to say which, since they don&#039;t have any clear diagnostic differences. I&#039;d call this likely a sub variety of sorts. Not an unusual occurance for the coinage, but I thought it was a pretty interesting result in this case.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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