Another Huge Slab Attribution Error... 1772 Mex 8R

I recently acquired some 1772 coins from a shipwreck and found a 1/2 reale with the initials FM and the mint mark M upside down... anyone know the value/rarity of this denomination?

As I'm going through and documenting any instances of certified PCGS portrait 8 Reales from Mexico, a small side hobby of mine, I find cases like these from time to time.

I'm working on a number of portrait 8 Reales sets @ PCGS and the 1772-MF is part of the Charles III registry set. So, to fill that hole I could either hunt for the existing certified example (PCGS shows that it certified 2 of the 1772 Inverted MF variety), or look to get a raw example and get it slabbed.

As a part of my research, I first found a record of this one:

Certificate# 30019635: VF35. Sold in Heritage 2006 June Long Beach Signature Auction for $402.50 with BP.
Here are the images:




It's clearly an FM and not an MF variety.

Then I found the AU58 (certificate# 09105410) mentioned in this post, first surfaced in Goldberg's 2006 Pre-Long Beach Sale 37 and realized $432. It went quiet for over 5 years and appeared again this January in the Heritage January World Coin Non-Floor session. This time around it blew past any reasonable estimate and sold for $2,530 (including BP). :Q




PCGS incorrectly attributed this one, as well. It's also an FM.

Now I know that in order for me to add a 1772 Mexico 8R Inverted MF I have to find my own example and grade or cross it into PCGS plastic.

I've notified the owner of the AU58. It's currently residing in a PCGS mexico type set of Rosswb1. He said that he noticed the incorrect attribution after he already received the coin from Heritage, but decided to keep it anyway because it's a rather stunning example.

I'm wondering if I should send this info including certification numbers and slab images to PCGS so that they're able to update their pop report by removing both of the coins and updating the certification numbers to the proper 1772 Inverted FM variety.

That's correct, Swamperbob. Both of the "Inverted MF" coins are misattributed. In reality PCGS certified 0 of the MF.

Hi Bob,

I've definitely seen a few of the MF varieties - it's a known coin.

For example, here's an XF example being offered for sale by Corey and Max (Mexican Coin Company):




There are also a few known MF varieties in NGC plastic, like this one sold by Heritage for $2,700 less than a month ago:

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleN...&lotNo=25106

They are definitely known varieties. Just not known to PCGS, apparently.

Bob, as I noted earlier in this thread I have several examples of each variety if you ever want to examine them.