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- FINEST KN! PERU 8 ESCUDOS 1710 NGC 63 1715 FLEET SHIPWRECK GOLD DOUBLOON COIN
FINEST KN! PERU 8 ESCUDOS 1710 NGC 63 1715 FLEET SHIPWRECK GOLD DOUBLOON COIN
Peru 8 escudos, 1710 H, four-digit date and HISPANIAR in legend, NGC MS 63 (1715 Fleet Shipwreck Label, "top pop"), ex-Ubilla-Echevez. 26.86 grams. overall one of the nicest Lima cob 8 Escudos we have ever seen and surely a candidate for finest strike known for this first issue to bear a second date in the legend.
Incredibly broad flan with full crown and legends (bold full date in four digits, also king's ordinal V), the inner details also full (choice cross-lions-castles, the pillars-and-waves slightly doubled on left side) and dripping with luster (tied with two others for finest in NGC census). Curiously, it appears that the E of REX in the legend is punched over a retrograde E (rotated 180 degrees), based on position of serifs (which seems to be the case for Tauler 235a as well). Crowning its virtues is this coin's link to the very first offering of Real Eight Co. coins in 1964, dubbed the "Ubilla-Echevez Collection" (named after the Captains of the 1715 Fleet) in order not to conflict with "first rights" given to National Geographic in their classic January 1965 article "Drowned Galleons Yield Spanish Gold." After that auction, apparently the coin went to Mel Fisher, who gave it a certificate, and then to one of his investors, the last time it changed hands until now. From the 1715 Fleet, with (small) hand-signed Mel Fisher certificate dated September 17, 1966, pedigreed to the Henry Christensen Ubilla-Echevez auction of October 1964 (lot 152).