During early 2008 Bob Murphy, one of our Mexican Coin Magic readers, sent us several interesting coins to add to the FoxLair References Collections; see (1112) The Mexican Coin Answer Man in this issue for all of them. One of them in particular was very interesting; it was a Guadalupe y Calvo GC 1851 MP 1 Escudo. Here is my answer to Bob’s questions about this coin. After you have looked at them, and formed an opinion why note email us your comments.
Over half of my recorded sales for this DAM were not photographed, making it difficult if not impossible to determine the individual rarity of the two different styles found this year. At this time I have recorded only two sales of the Mexican Style of 1848 dies that are supposed to be genuine with photos and six sales of the Sonora Style of 1851 dies, the balance of the sales have unknown die styles because they were not photographed, making it impossible to determine what style dies were used to make the coins. However, one thing is certain- all of the Sonora Style coins are High-Grade (Extra Fine or better), and the two supposedly verified Mexican Style of 1848 coins were graded only Very Fine. Another interesting fact is that majority of the other coins sold, but not photographed from this DAM have been low grade coins ranging from Very Good to Very Fine except two that graded: (1) aUnc, the 1995 Gerber Specimen, and (1) Mint State example in the 1951 Schulman/H.D. Gibbs Sale. If the owners of these two coins read this, I would love to know which styles these two coins are?
There have been six recorded sales for “contemporary counterfeits” using Mexican Style dies for this DAM: Superior/Pradeau#1 (09/70) Lot#1322: No Photos
Additionally I have recorded two sales of supposedly “genuine” coins using the Mexican Style dies:
Of the other 20 recorded sales for this DAM, five had photos showing they are Sonora Style dies, while 15 other sales had no photos making it impossible to tell what dies were used. One of the greatest problems the numismatist, or researcher faces is that most catalogs picture these small coins at their normal size making it almost impossible too fully attribute the coins correctly. And when you factor into this equation that most of the catalog photos are not all that good, it makes the task almost impossible.
The photos found in the Superior/ANA 1975 Sale, Richard Long Sale#67, and ANS-Eliasberg Sale are well above average, but none are great. Based on the photos of these coins, all three appear to be from different die pairs, but I can’t be positive. The Eagles in Superior/ANA 1975 Sale and Richard Long Sale#67 appear to be correct for the period, while the Eliasberg specimen doesn’t, but again I can’t be sure. However, the three Hand on Book dies all appear to be different. In February 2008 Bob Murphy sent us a group of coins to add to the FoxLair Reference Collections, included in this group was a 1851 Guadalupe y Calvo 1851 1 Escudo that is very interesting.
Let’s now look at these, and a few other coins to make a comparison of them. Let’s start by looking at the last verified genuine Guadalupe y Calvo 1 Escudo in the FoxLair Reference Collection, the GC 1848 MP for which we have two examples, both of which appear to be from the same die pair:
Next let’s look at the supposedly genuine Guadalupe y Calvo GC 1850 MP 1 Escudo that appeared in the ANR-Eliasberg Sale as Lot#3305. Notice the difference in lettering on the Hand on Book die from 1848 to 1850 and the difference in the Eagle dies.
Now let’s look at the San Andres specimen that uses the Sonora Style dies of 1851.
