Has anyone ever heard of the Villegas Collection? I'm familiar with Eliasberg, Newman, Pogue, et al., but I've never heard of the Villegas Collection. Was he or she a famous collector that I'm just unfamiliar with or is this a case of someone just spending extra money to have their name put on the label? I tried Google, but couldn't find anything.
I understand and to each his own, everyone should collect what they like. However, one of the main attractions I have to collecting coins is the history, and this coin has had a very interesting life. All "1804" Bank of England Dollar/5 Shilling tokens were overstruck on Spanish 8 Reales. The chop marks just add to the history of how this coin helped facilitate trade with the Far East and then made its way back. If this coin could talk the stories it would tell.
There's a store in Raleigh, NC called NC Coppers. They have coins that state something similar with their store name. I asked them about it and vaguely recall something like, "once you've sent in as many coins as we have you can get your own label" or something like that.
I have not. This is actually my first coin with chop marks. Do you know of a good resource to help with identifying chop marks?
There are plenty of books out there on the subject. As a variety collector I would have to identify them myself.
That is the first time I have seen chop marks on an 1804 Bank of England dollar. It makes sense because the coin would have been available for far east trade. It's just unusual because it was a pretty old coin to have been used in the 1870s.
I agree the uniqueness and history is what intrigued me so much. I wanted atleast one chopmarked coin for my collection. I missed out on several Trade Dollars that brought strong money, but couldn't pass this up when I saw it. I may have over paid for what it is, but in the grand scheme of things it was relatively inexpensive, and since I had never seen one before I didn't want to miss the opportunity.
