1738 Mexico 1/2 Real

[World Colonial]

The link below contains the image to lot 28071 in the recently completed Heritage CICF sale, 1738 Mexico NGC MS-63 1/2 Real. I was fortunate enough to be the winning bidder at just under $900, a price which I think is reasonable though maybe somewhat high for the issue. It is the most I have ever paid for a pillar coin, though I have not bought any really nice ones in several years.

 

Heritage previously sold another example in NGC MS-66 in January 2012 for $1610. While the grade is higher on the other and because of it, it has better financial potential, I actually like the coin I bought better because of the strike. The globes on the reverse seem to be more fully struck. The surfaces and color on both I consider attractive which is something which is hard to find on these issues because many are "white", presumably from a prior dip or cleaning.

 

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=3024&lotNo=28071&lotIdNo=241034

 

Frank Gilboy in his reference "The Milled Columnarios of Central and South America" lists four varieties for this date. This one is listed as the most common with a rating of "C" or Common meaning he estimated over 1000 specimens in VF or better with no breakdown presumably because he did not have one..

 

Personally while I do not know how many remain, I find this estimate way to high as I do for many if not most of his opinions. My coin appears to be somewhat better than his plate coin (one of the over date varieties) but if his ratings were consistently accurate, it would seem that he would have been able to find better specimens to include. I have many coins which are better than the ones he used and given that he included images of many very rare date/mint combinations, he must have had access to some of the best collections available.

 

Adding this coin brings my total to 43 pillars in my collection broken down as follows:

 

By grading service: NCS (3), NGC (32), PCGS (4) and ungraded (4);

By denomination: 8R (1), 4R (2), 2R (14), 1R (12) and 1/2R (14);

By mint: Bolivia (7), Guatemala (5), Mexico (12) and Peru (19)

By Grade: Below AU (16), AU (9), and mint state (14). This includes the three NCS and six "Details" coins.

 

If anyone wonders why I have only one pillar dollar, it is mostly intentional. Aside from the 4R, they are more expensive but I actually prefer the others because they are generally so much scarcer. I have had several opportunities to buy other 8R and declined to do so.

[tejas1836]

Very nice looking coin.

 

Of the 43, which one is your favorite?

[World Colonial]

Probably the 1754 Guatemala NGC XF-45 4R. It is a coin I bought back in 2004 and I was very surprised it became available.

 

Generically, I like the Peru pillars the best, but Guatemala is an almost impossibly difficult mint to find coins in any decent condition. The other four I have are NGC G-06 to NGC VG-08 plus an NCS which is holed. There was a PCGS XF-40 2R which went unsold recently, but it is the only other graded coin that was not an 8R that was remotely decent. (I have seen exactly three graded minors from this mint in over 10 years because the census counts are nonexistent.)

 

I have seen a few other 4R ungraded that might have been OK, but my luck in buying pillars outside of NGC or PCGS holders has not been good since I never have the opportunity to inspect them first. A disproportionate number of the scarcer pillars I have seen (from any mint) were offered by Spanish auction firms but my experience tells me that non-US buyers are sometimes willing to pay more than a US buyer will for a coin that will not grade making it uneconomical to buy them.

[physics-fan3.14]

That is really nice, WC! Congrats on the purchase.

[TwoKopeiki]

That's a great coin and I agree that Spanish Colonial minors are greatly under-appreciated. They are much scarcer in high grades than the 8 Reales, but the collector base just doesn't seem to be there (yet).

 

Beautiful addition to your collection!

[World Colonial]

Thanks to both of you for your compliments on my new acquisition.

 

TwoKopeiki,

 

I have seen some of your coins here and on the PCGS forum. The coins you collect are those which most collectors prefer since they are larger. The coins I collect are less popular for this reason.

 

Another factor working against the future prospects of my coins financially is that I do not think there are very many of them. More than is apparent now yes, but not much more. I do not believe there are that many (better coins at least) of either the pillar or even portrait 8R and definitely not the Mexican Revolutionary coinage (from the 1810's) but at least since they are large, I think it is more likely that more collectors will still want to pay more for them later. I just probably think it will be less than most others probably do.

 

The reason for this is that I do not see any large or much larger number of collectors attempting to collect a coin or series when there is little or almost nothing to buy, no matter what merits the coin(s) may have otherwise. It is mostly pointless.