(11) The Back Page: Volume 1 Issue 1: Last Revision: 02/12/05
A Few New Unpublished Varieties- Here are a few new Republican varieties that were discovered during 2000-02 by several different sources and that are currently not listed in most reference books…
Republican 8 Escudos- I’m going to cover only a few of the 8 Escudo varieties I’ve found in the last couple of years in this first issue, so as not to bore all of you out there not interested in this wonderful series. We will cover other denominations in future issues of Mexican Coin Magic.
Most of the Culiacan 8 Escudos are now not thought to be rare, since the Norweb Collection and the Sotheby's Gold Hoard of the 1990s came on the market, but this is not true- especially in high-grade. Culiacan is the source for my first De-Listing of a long listed and many times miss-attributed coin-- C 1860/58 CE 8 Escudo. Even I have thought this was the proper attribution for this coin, you see I have owned one of this OverDate for more years than I would care to admit. Recently, I received three 8 Escudos for this date/assayer/mintmark (DAM) combination to study from three different sources. The first two looked much like the others that I had seen over the years. Then the third one caught my attention … it was clearly a Repunched 60/60 and not a 60/58. Upon closer inspection I determined all three were from the same dies set. But because I had never seen a really well struck high-grade 1860, as was this third one, for I too had believed the 60/58 was the proper attribution of this coin. This OverDate was always questionable in my mind because I knew there was a die style change in 1859 making this OverDate questionable in my mind. Yet in grades Very Fine or slightly better, it could be mistaken for the OverDate 60/58. You can now be the judge of why I don’t think this is correct from the scans below.
Another new Culiacan variety was reported- the coin is the C 1863/2 CE pictured below. This coin is from the Richard Long #89 Sale Lot #69.
C 1863 CE 3/2 OverDate
Durango Mint… Here are several new or confirmed varieties from the Durango Mint. The first one is the OverDate Do 1841/34 RM that has been reported for some time but until recently was unconfirmed. The 1841/30 has been well known and documented but not the 41/34. See the picture below.
Do 1841 RM 41/34 OverDate
The next new Durango variety is the Do 1864 LT Normal Date. This date has long been reported to found only as a Normal Date by most catalogers. The only coin ever seen by the author was the OverDate 6/5 in his collection, leading others and me to believe very few catalogers, if any, had ever been seen this coin. However, in April 2000 a new Do 1864 LT Normal Date was sold confirming both the OverDate and Normal coins truly do exist.
Do 1864 LT Normal
The following year, Do 1865 LT has long been listed as the OverDate 5/4, and was the only coin listed for this date/assayer/mintmark (DAM) combination. I personally had never seen this OverDate, the only coin I had seen was a Do 1865 LT Normal Date I had purchased from Mike Dunigan many years ago. But in early 2000 another new coin showed up in the mail ... this time it was the 5/4 OverDate Do 1865/4 LT, thus confirming both the Normal date and the OverDate.
Do 1865/4 LT OverDate
Guadalupe y Calvo Mint … This mint has always posed more questions than answers for me as it changed hands at least twice in its short history. This mint was reported to have had one of the first steam powered coining presses in Mexico. So why did it make so many awful looking coins?
Several students of Mexican Numismatics have thought that some Guadalupe y Calvo dies were later to end up in Culiacan and be used there, and in a future issue we will cover this in depth in several denominations. Recently I have had the opportunity to see more coins from this mint than ever before and I’ve been amazed at the number of strange looking Eagles found on their coins in several denominations.
Now even more interesting is that I believe this mint probably received a set of hubs or master dies from Mexico City as early as 1844. Pictured below are three different 8 Escudos from 1844, 1845 and 1846 that all use the same Hand on Cap dies, yet all three have different Eagle dies. The first coin is a Normal date 1844, the second a 1845/4 OverDate and the third is a 1846/4 OverDate. I personally own another 1846 that is not made from this set of Hand on Book dies. Here again is another mint that requires much more study in the future just like Culiacan, because they were both controlled by the same lessees early in the mint's history.
GC 1844 MP Normal
GC 1845/4 MP OverDate
GC 1846/4 GC/MP OverDate
Hermosillo Mint …The newest variety found in Hermosillo is a new OverAssayer. This occurs on the Excessively Rare 1864 Ho/FM and is the FM/PR OverAssayer. This coin makes us wonder when and how this OverAssayer came about because we have always been lead to believe the order of the assayers for 1864 was first FM and then PR, as always more questions are raised by new knowledge than answers.
Ho 1864 FM OverAssayer FM/PR
Mexico City Mint … The first new Mexico City variety is an unusual coin that appeared in the Pat Johnson Rare Coin Buy or Bid Sale in September 2000 Lot #15. This coin is now classified as an Error Mintmark Coin with a very unusual mintmark that is a small retrograde “c” instead of the normal small “o” over the “M” in the mintmark.
Error Mintmark Retrograde ‘c’ instead of ‘o’ Mintmark Mo 1824 JM
A second new Mexico City variety is from the Richard Long Sale #89 Lot # 94. This is a new OverAssayer appearing on the Mo 1860 FH; Richard attributes this as a F/P. There is still a question in my mind that this is the correct attribution as there are no records of a Assayer" P" until 1868 and I have this DAM in my collection and it has no OverAssayer. Can you make the call from the scans?
Mo 1860 FH F/P OverAssayer
That’s all the varieties for now folks, but we will have many more new varieties including OverDates, OverAssayers and even a few Errors to report the next few issues.
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