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Quiebraxaha (Quiebra Hacha), Cuba, cast silver 2 reales-sized proclamation medal, Charles IV, 1789,

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - World (A-G) Start Price:4,000.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Quiebraxaha (Quiebra Hacha), Cuba, cast silver 2 reales-sized proclamation medal, Charles IV, 1789,
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Quiebraxaha (Quiebra Hacha), Cuba, cast silver 2 reales-sized proclamation medal, Charles IV, 1789, Domingo Ruis, very rare, NGC XF details / private countermark. Herrera-199; Medina-231; VQR-13233. 7.48 grams; 29mm. Like the previous lot, this cast proclamation medal follows a distinctively Cuban hand-engraved style with maker's name and location in legend, in this case Domingo Ruis (Ruiz) of Quiebra Hacha (QUIEBRAXAHA on the medal) which Benjamin Betts (1897) attributed to Santa Maria del Rosario by virtue of the fact that the reverse design is otherwise identical to a 1760 medal with the locality stated in legend as SMR and maker's name as JHP RVIZ, whom Medina (1917) identifies as Jose Ruiz and the father of Domingo. The history of both Quiebra Hacha and Santa Maria del Rosario can be found in the growing corpus of literature on slave revolts in the 1700s. Specifically, the Havana-area sugar plantation of Quiebra Hacha was the site of a famous slave revolt in 1727, after which its owner, the Count of Casa Bayona, built a new town with the name Santa Maria del Rosario on the site of the Quiebra Hacha sugar mill. Quoting Manuel Barcia in his 2012 book The Great African Slave Revolt of 1825: "in the place where the Quiebra Hacha sugar mill had once thrived, a new town that aimed to have a 'large population' was founded with the intention of erasing the memory of the rebellion from the minds of the slaves.... The establishment of Santa Maria del Rosario, a popular urban center to this day, was a direct result of the first large slave uprising to take place in Cuba." Santa Maria del Rosario today is a town east of Havana centered around an eponymous church and also features a restored home of the relocated Count of Casa Bayona. The connection to these medals is indisputable, and it can be safely assumed that the 1760 medals refer to the new town of Santa Maria del Rosario while the 1789 medals refer instead to the original plantation, both medals almost certainly commissioned by (at least the heirs of) Count of Casa Bayona himself. In any case, only four of these 1789 Quiebra Hacha medals are known, in just one design, and this is believed to be the finest example, with bold details enhanced by dark toning contrasting with lightly gold-toned fields, significantly non-holed but with unattributed backwards-R countermark (for Rosario?) in field in front of neck. NGC #5935525-001.