Charles III copper Specimen Pattern Grano 1769-Mo XF Details (Cleaned) PCGS, Mexico City mint, KM-PnD1, Guttag-Unl., Cal-13. One of the few copper issues known from colonial Mexico, produced shortly before Charles III hired Tomas Francisco Prieto to over the design of a new, unified coinage for use throughout the Spanish Empire. Though some past scholars have considered the type to be a sort of Pattern, the fact that such issues are almost all found circulated and/or corroded, and carry the Mexico City mintmark rather than that of Madrid, suggests that they were produced for local circulation in Mexico, though some scholars believe they might also have been struck for use in the Philippines. Though the composition of the design is not entirely clear, the motifs are strikingly similar to the later eagle-atop-cactus imagery drawn from Aztec mythology. Such certainly seems likely given the thorny texture of the knob at the bird's left foot on higher grade examples of the 1/2 Grano. All considered, a coin of great historical interest. Privately Purchased from Richard Long in the early 2000's

HID09801242017

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