1453

Mexico City, Mexico, pillar 8 reales, Ferdinand VI, 1753MF, with New South Wales (Australia) attempt

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - World Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 500.00 USD
Mexico City, Mexico, pillar 8 reales, Ferdinand VI, 1753MF, with New South Wales (Australia) attempt
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Mexico City, Mexico, pillar 8 reales, Ferdinand VI, 1753MF, with New South Wales (Australia) attempted countermark in center ("holey dollar"). KM-104.1; CT-329. 26.7 grams. This fascinating coin had us and Mark really excited, for the center of it, while not holed, bears remnants of the markings of the famous Australian "holey dollar" of 1813 (made from Spanish colonial pillar and bust 8R that were holed in and stamped around the center), effectively Australia's first official dollar coin and, as such, worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars! Naturally it is a highly counterfeited type, so after Mark's death we decided to send this coin to the two top experts in Australia for their opinion, hoping they would agree that this was a sort of "failed" holing and countermarking. Unfortunately, close (and lengthy) scrutiny revealed that the markings on this coin match a series of fakes made in 1986 in Manila. Oh well! The host coin at least is genuine, a bold and lightly toned VF, with a hairline edge-split where the attempted holing/marking broke the planchet, but no other problems. We are pretty sure you will never see another coin like this, whether you want to or not! Pedigreed to the Mark Bir collection.