Mexico 1 Reale, 1542-55

ummm, well, honestly I'm surprised to see a coin from that time period that is not a cobb. Honestly, I know little about coins of the 16th century (even when it comes to 8s), but the only 8s at that time that were well struck on round planchets were "Royal Strikes." These were virtually just patterns rather than general issue coins. So I guess this means one of three things: That your friend spent an arm and a leg to get a really rare and valuable coin, that this person just got the deal of a lifetime if you didn't pay too much, or, unfortunately, your friend got a fake. To be honest, this coin looks very much like the style of coins of the 16th and 17th centuries. I wonder if this could have been minted in Spain during the 16th century. This is a possibility since those were better struck than their colonial counterparts.

halfabustisbetter- hmm very interesting. Did you actually find this in a hard copy of an issue of Coin World, or are old issues of that periodical now archived online?

halfabustisbetter- ah, thanks! Quite a fascinating article. Well, I guess the question still remains as to the rarity of KurtS's friend's coin.

To me it appears that the coin is a One Real from the reign of Juana Y Carlos (1506-1516). The coin appears to be in a third party holder so what does it read?

The appearance is normal for the period. The mint masters were Spanish and they brought with them the capabilities of the Spanish homeland mints. The dies were hand punched using punch sets brought from Europe. Some dies may have been produced in Europe.

The double Pillars are a general reference to the Spanish Royals being both King (Queen) of Spain and Emperor (Empress) of the World. The legend on the left picture is : "HISPANIARVM ET INDIARVM" Spain and India refers to the two halves of the world as then known.

If you read the legends on the right picture - starting at the crown above the shield and work clockwise you read: "CAROLVS ET IOHANA REGIS". So read together you get Charles and Joanna Rulers of Spain and India.

The assayer and mint marks M and L indicates Mexico during their reign. They also used Mo as well during the same period. The mint appears on the Left and assayer on the right in this case. But there are many types including mint on the Right and an Mo mint mark. The assayers include A, F, G, L, O, P, R, S. There is one die with the King's name misspelled which is rare.

My reference for the type (including the "centering dot") is Cayon's "Las Monedas Espanolas" page 464 # 2889. The single dot actually means ONE real - it is the denominational mark. The 2 Real coins have two dots above the SVI and the 4R and 10R coins have a numeral below (or above) the SVI at center. They did mint silver 1/4 and 1/2 reals during the period, but they are several orders of magnitude more rare and costly. The lower denominations 2 and 4 Maravedis were copper and they are scarcer than the silver 1Rs.

Charles and Joanna did not issue an 8R coin. They also did not issue Gold coins at Mexico.

These coins were actually part of the first large scale issue of silver coins from Mexico.

The One Real type is actually common according to Cayon - priced at 5,000 pesetas. Which would equate to less than $50 in curent terms.

Cayon is a handy reference for earlier Spanish American coins and is far more detailed than Krause. The cobs appeared later and reflect a degradation in mint capabilities as well as an increase in mint output.

Swamperbob, thanks for all the great info--how interesting!

Reviewing what my friend wrote about this coin, I now see he called it a 1 Reale. Ooops!
And judging by his pics, I think it's slabbed too. When I get more info I'll post it here.

Thanks again for all your insights!

Yes, that's an amazing bit of history to consider...if this coin was actually struck there. I have passed that article on to the owner of this coin.

KurtS- Awesome!

The coins you present are always interesting