1116

World Coinage: Rare Variety with Date over GRAT

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
World Coinage: Rare Variety with Date over GRAT
Mexico 1714-J Gold 8 Escudos of Philip V, Extremely Fine. Formerly Lot 2868 in the John Jay Pittman Collection, sold between August 6-8, 1999 by David Akers Numismatics, Inc. (lot ticket is included), where it was described as follows: "KM-57.2. CCT Ty. 28, No. 144. Extremely Fine. A shipwreck or sea salvage coin that is essentially mint state. An interesting and rare variety with the date 171(4) over GRAT. On most examples of this issue, the obverse legend reads only DEI G. On some, however, the date is on the reverse above the cross, and the obverse legend is expanded to DEI GRAT. This coin obviously represented an interim step with the expanded legend but the date still punched in on the obverse, only over the RAT of GRAT. Also, the denomination VIII is over IIIV; in other words, the V was originally put at the wrong end of the Roman numeral! The Daniel and Frank Sedwick book, The Practical Book of Cobs, notes that this variety with the date over GRAT is "Rare," but no mention is made in the book of the original inverse order of the elements of the Roman numeral used for the denomination." The only thing we can add is that the V was not put at the wrong end of the denomination, but was first entered upside down, then corrected. Either way, it's an interesting, unlisted error.