Review by Dave Busse
Daniel Sedwick has provided us with a welcome continuation of the work that began with his father, Frank and was initially published in June 1987, with 5,000 copies being printed. Those have long since entered the libraries of serious collectors and numismatists, and except for an occasional find in an auction or book section of a dealer, they have disappeared. For those of us who have followed the progression, and that’s exactly what it has been, as each subsequent effort shows new information either through discovery of actual documents or basic logic and analysis, it is a welcome addition. His acknowledgements read like a Who’s Who in the world of Cobs. The price is a miniscule $27 including postage.
The 4th Edition is organized similarly to the earlier ones with chapters discussing. Always enjoyable is the “The Numbers Game” – a brief essay about numbers used in our languages and how sometimes they have come to mean more than a simple numerical value. Of course, the primary number Mr. Sedwick deals with is 8 because of its relation to the historical 8 Reales or more commonly in Colonial times, a “piece of eight.”
The structure of the book is largely unchanged though there are some minor ones – for example the 1st Edition has a chapter named The Spanish Treasure Fleets while this one uses Shipwrecks and the Spanish Treasure Fleets due to the fact that not all the sea salvage coins come from the Spanish Fleets, such as those of 1715 and 1733 which do account for a large percentage of the known sea salvage pieces. He also includes what he refers to as “Early Pillars-type Design” from Mexico City and Lima, which many call Carlos y Juana, or Charles & Johanna noting that technically those coins are not true cobs.
Perhaps the most useful chapter is the 89-page piece entitled The Assayers at the Spanish- American Colonial Mints. It is obvious that a great amount of research was done. Previously, the serious collector often had to scour several works in order to determine which assayer(s), in some case assistants, were represented by the initials found on the coins. He has largely done this for us even though we may never have all the answers. He logically argues that Assayer “F” on the Early Series Pillar-type (C&J) was probably Francisco de Loaiza rather than Esteban Franco (as Nesmith proposed in this work, Coinage of the First Mint of the Americas at Mexico City 1536-1572). Sedwick reasons is that Franco testified as an outside witness in the well known Tello de Sandoval investigation in 1545, and made no mention of being active at the mint. However, Loaiza was known to have at least some role in leasing the office of the assayer from the owner of the mint, Pedro de la Membrilla in 1538. Since Assayer F examples are very rare this well may be who the assayer was and when the coins were struck. The author is to be applauded for this work. Those who write or attempt to write numismatic books know the amount of effort required when tackling a complicated subject when the research and collaboration necessary to reach a viable conclusion approaches the impossible. All that can be said is thanks.
The chapter on counterfeits is well done and though he does not state it specifically the implication – to me at least – is there is no substitute for personal knowledge. He says that the collector can send cobs to Third Party Graders/Authenticators and have a degree of assurance that the coin is genuine. However, as he infers, it is not an ironclad guarantee. One would assume that Mr. Sedwick has his share of coins – as do many serious collectors and dealers – authenticated by those third parties that are either not genuine or completely misattributed. He offers that the best way to determine the authenticity of a coin is to seek the advice of a respected dealer and/or specialist. We concur with that. We also applaud his efforts to involve authorities in the prosecution of those who knowingly sell counterfeits as genuine coins to novice collectors. Those despicable characters do the hobby no good. He does not mention recent decisions by “judges” to allow countries to retain ownership of coin salvaged from the sea by others even though the country in question has never made any physical efforts to recover the items from the shipwrecks and ignoring more than 500 years of precedence regarding laws of the sea. How one can argue that coins are a national artifact/treasure and should be returned to it when they were purposefully made to be circulated in foreign countries as well as the originating country is beyond logic of any kind other than pure greed.
The use of more and better photos has enhanced this edition; and drawings, which are sometimes more useful than photos, are still used in those cases. There are several wonderful photos including – on the front and back covers – the magnificent heart shaped Louis I 1726 8 Reales struck in the Potosi (in present day Bolivia) Mint, Assayer Y. Another is the 8 Reales MO 1609/8/7, Assayer A/F which as far as I know remains the only known example of that over-date, over-assayer combination.
The practical advice on buying and selling cobs as well as judging a coin’s worth should be helpful, especially to a beginner. He wisely avoids talking about grading cobs. Even a mint state example is seldom a thing of beauty, except perhaps for the occasional Redondo (Royal) which will surface, bring a wave of excitement when it sells (unless it is by private treaty), then disappears into a collector’s holdings for years and sometimes decades. He offers that the desirability of a particular coin is usually determined by it being damage free, the amount of detail present, especially the legends and completeness of the central devices and whether or not it has been cleaned.
There are a couple of what are probably typos – such as on page 60 where he says the Pillar-type (referring to Carlos y Juana coinage from Mexico City) includes all denominations “except for the ¼ Real” but should have said “except for the ¼ Real and the ½ Real.
His listings – Useful Books And Catalogs – and – A Few Useful Articles About Cobs – are valuable for beginners and advanced collectors alike who may be doing additional studies of particular coins. The greatest gift a numismatist can give is the sharing of knowledge.
Dave Busse, Numismatist[X] Return to Table of Contents Volume 3 Issue 11
[Home Page] Return to Mexican Coin Magic Home Page