COLOMBIA GOLD COB ESCUDO – 1708-1713 SCARCE DENOMINATION OF BOGOTA – PCGS MS 62 LATIN AMERICA WORLD COIN (Inv. 20754)

$5,975.00

*** TOP POP AND ILLUSTRATED IN PCGS CENSUS ***

20754. COLOMBIA. CHARLES II POSTHUMOUS EMISSION UNDER PHILIP V.
Gold Cob Escudo, ca. 1708–13, 3.34 g, 14 mm. Bogotá mint.
KM 13; Calicó 210; Friedberg 9.
Ex Stack’s Bowers, Summer 2022 Global Showcase Auction, lot 34385.
PCGS MS 62. TOP POP, sole graded coin at PCGS, illustrated in their pop report.

The small denomination of 1 escudo is scarce at Bogotá. There are only five others on CoinArchives of this 1-escudo denomination, including some that show elements of the decoration transposed. The assayer, the man responsible for striking the coin, was Buenaventura de Arce, whose name or initial is omitted on the gold cobs of this period struck with the name of Charles II under Philip V, a possibly intentional maneuver to cover up a secret wartime fineness reduction. The king’s name, CAROLUS, is partially preserved on this specimen. For a detailed study on Arce’s coinage see Daniel F. Sedwick, Arce’s Doubloons (2025).