Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beache Report.
 |
| Lot 21 In The Current Sedwick Treasure Auction. 1713 Eight-Escudo Royal With Auction Estimate of $300,000 - $600,000 |
The Sedwick World, U.S. Coin and Paper Money Auction, Number 28, is now online and available for bidding. Included as lot 21 is this 1713 Royal Escudo bearing an auction estimate of up to $600,000. Although there are twenty days remaining in the auction, this royal already has a bid of $210,000, which I am sure will go much higher.
The long and detailed auction description begins as follows.
Mexico City, Mexico, cob 8 escudos Royal (galano), 1713J, extremely rare, NGC MS 66, finest and only example graded by NGC, ex-1715 Fleet (designated on special label). S-M30; Cal-2194; KM-R57.1. 27.03 grams. From the 1715 Fleet (Corrigan's site), pictured on the cover of the November-December 1998 issue of Treasure Quest, with Fisher photo-certificate #42933, ex-Rudman. NGC #5909759-001...
You will want to read the longest auction description I have ever seen. It is full of treasure hunting history.
Here is the link.
https://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Treasure-World-U-S-Coin-Paper-Money-Auction-28_as65941
---
The reason I went to the Sedwick treasure auction site catalog this morning was to look at some of the Charles-Joanna Mexico minted coins such as the ones I've been talking about recently. As I've often said, auction catalogs provide some of the best resources for coin information.
Here is one of several Charles-Joanna two-reales that I found listed in the current auction.
 |
| Lot 460 In The Current Sedwick Treasure Auction. |
And here is the lot listing.
---
Speaking of Nesmith, I found a great reference on the first coins produced by the Mexico mint: Coinage of the First Mint of the Americas at Mexico City, 1536-1572, by Robert Nesmith. It was published in 1955, so is older but still very useful. Undoubtedly additional information has been discovered since the this was published.
A large number of images of the earliest coins are shown, but some of the images are no longer accessible. Still there are many that are accessible and in many ways this publication is beyond the level of detail I've seen elsewhere.
Below are a few paragraphs I think you might find interesting.
On February 28, 1538, Charles issued a decree prohibiting the coinage of gold and copper in the colonies.18 Since the Mexico mint had not begun to coin copper (and gold was not considered), the decree served only to delay any plans for the copper coinage which Mendoza had formed. The town council of Mexico City discussed the desirability of copper coinage at various times, and the minutes of July 30,1540, show that different opinions were current. On April 17, 1542, the Cabildo proposed that copper money should not be struck and circulated as long as silver money of small value was in production.19 In spite of this, the viceroy authorized the copper coinage some ten weeks later. It is safe to assume that no copper was struck at the Mexico City mint until after the viceroy's edict of authorization of June 28, 1542.20
The first copper coins were struck from dies made with the first series of punch designs with which the EARLY SERIES G, F, and P dies were cut. The square K of the obverse is distinctive. The four maravedíes (cuarto), is the only denomination known of this series. The pieces do not show an assayer's initial; it was not necessary to assay the metal since it contained no silver.
Before many of these coins could be struck, the third series of punch designs arrived from Spain. The details of the die design were changed, and were now similar to the dies of the LATE SERIES G coinage. The many varieties of obverse and reverse arrangement of punch details are shown on page 130. The coppers of this series are known in denominations of four and two maravedíes. It was testified in 1545 that the following copper coins had been struck: four maravedíes, two maravedíes, and that patterns of one maravedí had been made although none had been issued.21 No pieces of one maravedí are known.
As soon as the copper coins were issued the Indians refused to accept them. The viceroy issued strict orders enforcing their circulation, but even the strictest punishment could not prevent the Indians from throwing them into the gutters or into Lake Texcoco "that they might never more be seen."22 Now, some four hundred years later, the coppers are being excavated from the mud of the old lake bed during drainage operations. Most of the copper pieces examined came from this source, thickly caked with hard grey mud in which they had reposed since the sixteenth century.
The Audiencia at Mexico City, in a letter to the king dated March 17, 1545, agreed that copper money should still be made;23 and the town council minutes of August 16, 1546 mention "the copper money that is made in New Spain."24 However, at least by the meeting of March 6, 1550, the members of the Cabildo had agreed that copper money should be discontinued because of its misuse by the Indians, who apparently were still throwing the pieces to the four winds.25 The coining of copper was probably suspended about 1551 or 1552, and it was officially outlawed by the royal decree to that effect of 1565.26 Copper coinage was not again attempted in New Spain until 1814.
The history of copper coinage in Mexico was epitomized by Surez de Peralta, who wrote in the sixteenth century: For a long time, at least up to 1579 when I left New Spain,... the smallest and most ordinary coin given [as alms] to the Spaniards is the half real of silver because there have not been any [copper] cuartos, and the natives do not know what they would be like. Thus, when I arrived in Spain,... and saw cuartos and learned of their circulating value, I was amazed and could not help ask, 'Is it possible that this coin has a value and that one may purchase food with it?'
I remember hearing it said that Viceroy Mendoza had a large quantity of cuartos coined, which he ordered accepted, and they circulated; and this coinage must have been the grossest stupidity of the land, since the Indians never wished to receive them, and had no remedy. Instead of accepting t
And here is the link for the rest of the article.
About the author: Robert I. Nesmith (1891-1972) was a numismatist, photographer, and an authority on treasure hunting. He ran a photography firm, R. I. Nesmith & Associates, in New York City and was chief photographer for Copper Commando, a newspaper published during World War II that was devoted to demonstrating the importance of metal production to the war effort. He later owned and operated a bookstore in Rye, New York, called The Foul Anchor, which specialized in books on treasure hunting. He became an associate member of the American Numismatic Society in 1943 and a fellow in 1944.
See: http://numismatics.org/authority/nesmith
---
I stuffed a lot of numismatic information in this post and provided you with a lot of additional reading. I think that is it for today.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net