978

Original steel die for Coquimbo, Chile, 1 real, (1828TH), unique and extremely important. 1232 gram

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Argentina-Chile Start Price:2,500.00 USD Estimated At:2,500.00 - 5,000.00 USD
Original steel die for Coquimbo, Chile, 1 real, (1828TH), unique and extremely important.  1232 gram
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Original steel die for Coquimbo, Chile, 1 real, (1828TH), unique and extremely important. 1232 grams, 3" tall and nearly 2" to a side. One of Latin America's great numismatic icons is the Coquimbo peso of 1828, which contemporary documentation has confirmed was struck in three different series, of which only a few specimens of the later two are known to exist, valued in the tens of thousands of dollars today. Much less known is the fact that minor denominations were also issued by the Coquimbo mint. According to documents, on November 18, 1828, the Coquimbo mint’s director Gregorio Cordovez remitted to the Santiago mint for examination a sample consisting of 20 pesos, 20 half pesos (4 reales) and 32 half reales. Of this batch, 10 coins of each denomination were subjected to a thorough analysis of their fineness, weight, and quality of engraving and strike; all 30 coins failed the testing. But further documentary evidence from late 1829, when the mint was abandoned due to the Revolutionary movement headed by former President Ramón Freire, shows that the Coquimbo mint’s engraver and provisional assayer Theodoro Hagen had managed to produce dies for all five silver denominations, including the 1 real and 2 reales. In fact, inventories made in 1830 and 1841 specifically list "107 finished dies for pesos, fours, twos, reales, and halves, engraved and polished." (See Carlos Jara’s book Chile’s Coquimbo Mint: a documented history [2003] for transcriptions of these documents.) The only other Coquimbo coins known at present besides the two varieties of the peso are a few specimens of the 1/2 real, all from the same pair of dies. While somewhat corroded and rusty, this obverse die for the 1 real (authenticated by Jara), with most of the volcano design and all-important COQUIMBO mintmark below, is of the utmost historical importance as the ONLY KNOWN surviving die from this famous mint. Like the Potosi 8R Royal 1725 die offered in this same sale (lot 806), this piece is squarish-octagonal in cross-section and necessarily heavy.