Banco de Mexico collection

[World Colonial]

I found the website for the Banco de Mexico collection recently. Others might have seen it but I thought it might be of interest, It can be accessed via the link below.

 

http://www.banxico.org.mx/ColeccionNumismatica/Information?execution=e1s1

 

I don't know if the entire collection is cataloged. I reviewed most of the pillars, some of the royals and a few of the Cap & Ray. The latter primarily the 4R. Here are my observations:

 

The pillar collection is complete, by date and denomination though not die variety, except for the 1770 2R which I believe might be unknown, though Gilboy claims otherwise.. The only other comparable collection I know might Rudman, whose collection is in the process of being sold by Heritage. Rudman's is higher quality (both contain numerous "details" and lower grade coins) but it lacks the 1772 8R which is included in this collection.

 

There are several "high quality" royals, including one 4R and a handful of 8R. These coins are actually high quality, likely candidates for the best in existence. Several of the 1/2R are at least not holed but obviously cleaned.

 

The collection apparently dates back to 1936, which explains why the quality is not comparable to the US Mint collection. There are numerous exceptionally struck pillar 8R (mostly from the 1730's) but no "gems" by the standards used here or on PCGS. The collection is certainly much better than what usually available for sale but supports my prior opinion that the supply of higher grade/quality coins is very low.

 

Many coins appear to need conservation.

 

Specific coins include:

 

Probably the best 1732 pillar 2R, by far. The detail is quite good but it has a nasty scratch on the pillar side.

 

1732 pillar 8R, AU to MS.

 

1772 pillar 8R, one of two known and possibly the #1 coin in the entire series across all mints covering approximately 400 coins.

 

1715 royal 8R not holed, AU to MS.

 

1728 royal 4RF not holed, maybe AU

[jgenn]

My impression, on looking through the pillar and early portrait 8Rs, is that the Banco de Mexico collection was not curated by experts. No overdates are indicated and some coins have the appearance of peeling silver plating.

 

I suspect that the individual collectors that provided the bulk of the collection had advanced tastes that included contemporary counterfeits. These may have been inadvertently included as genuine. The 1772 pillar 8 reales is rather suspicious looking -- discussion here (http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=251248)

[World Colonial]

Some of the coins are identified as counterfeits but not the 1772 8R. Gilboy claims two known, with the other in a private collection. He does specifically mention this coin as being owned by the Banco de Mexico, but he must not have inspected it (whether directly or otherwise) because an image isn't included. The coin is unlisted in Krause and other catalogs but I'm not sure about prior reference books.

 

Gilboy includes a bibliography but I don't have access to these documents. The World Numismatic archives (previously Mexican Numismatics) includes an article with pillar mintages from 1747 forward but I don't recall 1772 mentioned.

 

I agree with you that the collection was probably not professionally curated. However, I'm not sure that this is because of a lack of overdate attribution. I see this attribution in Spanish foreign auctions but I don't know whether this is a universal practice or not. Without specifics, I'd say no because I don't believe most collectors elsewhere care about this and if they do now, they might not have in the past.