Lot 1090
Mexico. 8 Reales, 1743-Mo-M.F. Eliz-20; KM-103. Philip V, 1700-1746. Pillar coinage. Excellent full, even strike. Old gray toning, with traces of vivid coloring towards the edges. Choice original surfaces, with considerable mint luster under toning. Scarce this nice. NGC graded MS-63.
An especially fine example of the standard silver coin of the realm, which circulated throughout the New World, and which was accepted as legal tender in the United States until 1850.
In the last decade of the 1600's, because of the rich gold strikes being made in Brazil, the abundant Portuguese gold filtering into Europe was again creating new and differing pressures on the gold to silver values, with concurrent effects, sometimes adverse, on the European economies. By contrast, the output of bullion, especially silver, from Spain's American colonies had dropped precipitously in the 17th century, due mainly to the mines playing out, which did not help one bit Spain's fiscal difficulties at home. However, the advent of new industrial processes was reversing this trend by the beginning of the 18th century, and, by the mid-century the silver workings were intensified to such a degree that output was higher than ever. Thus for Spain, while gold became a no-longer-dependable bullion income, subject to wide swings, the Spanish dollar, on the other hand, maintained its integrity and even expanded its role as an international, in fact an almost universal, medium of exchange. In North America, for example, at the end of the American Revolution, Spanish dollars outnumbered other coins by three or four to one. When the new United States decided that it should have its own uniform currency system, Thomas Jefferson suggested the Spanish dollar as the coin "most familiar of all to the mind of the people." A Congressional committee decided, with some modifications, in favor of Jefferson's proposal and recommended that the dollar would more likely "produce the happy effect of uniformity in counting money throughout the Union." In July 1785, Congress enacted that the money unit of the United States be the dollar.
Estimated Value $2,500 - 3,000.
|
| |
| Realized $3,680 |
