Philip IV Cob 8 Reales 1649 P-Z XF40 NGC, Potosi mint, KM-19b, Cal-1485. 27.12gm. A survivor from the great transition of the Potosi mint, an extensive monetary reform held in the mid 1600's due to the massive corruption scheme known as the "Potosi Scandal". Bearing few signs of circulation, this piece presents the usual crudeness but also a bold assayer and discernible date. With few survivors, the great majority salvaged from the Capitana or Maravillas, it is truly elusive to encounter a high-grade one that escaped the counterstamping, the re-melting and/or the wrecks. Organized by the assayers and other mint workers, the plan behind the "Potosi Scandal" was to reduce the purity of their coins while the thieves kept the remaining silver for themselves. The impacts were immense, even shaking Spain's reputation with the Asian trade, where merchants had the upmost trust for the Spanish Cob's silver quality. A transition of coinages occurred, full of unsuccessful attempts to uniformize the currency, one of them being the countermarking of the scandal coins with Crowned letters (or crowns alone), reducing the 8 Reales to 7 1/2 Reales. To set in stone the "New Potosi mint", a new style of Cobs was created (Pillars and Waves) and the scandal coins, countermarked or not, were to be re-melted/destroyed. HID09801242017 © 2023 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

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