Extremely Rare Pillar Variety

Boosibri

The 1768-Mo 8R as an issue is a very common date. Two R4+ varieties exist, one issue with a semicolon between the 6 and 7 in the date and another with a dot at the same placement. Gilroy lists both varieties as R4. In corresponding with Brad Yonaka, he calls the Dot variety extremely rare.

I was doing my normal scouring of eBay early this week and saw this Pillar with a visibly wide date. Upon looking closer I saw a dot present in the images. So the coin arrived today and I think it may in fact be a transitional issue between the semicolon variety and the dot variety. Clearly the central dot is present however beneath it there is evidence of a slightly raised bump where the comma in the semicolon is placed. On the semicolon variety the comma is dramatically impressed and raised above the dot.

Gilroy notes the possibility that the two varieties are one and the same with the dot being a more weekly impressed version. This coin seems to support that hypothesis.

Here are images of my coin and two of the semicolon variety I have found. I can find no other images of the dot variety.

Dot PCGS VF30

Images of Semicolon variety

Abuelo

Cool.

bidask

Good eye

mvs7

Very cool. I had no idea they even had a semicolon in the eighteenth century. Nice find, @Boosibri.

Boosibri

I caught up with Brad Yonaka and here are his thoughts:

The two other examples I have of that die are not good enough to see it, and I thought there was just one pellet. My conclusion is that there are two dies, one with upper pellet weak, and another with lower pellet weak, and none exists with just one pellet. These two dies account for all the examples of this odd type that's I've seen.

Abuelo

So : but not • or ; ?

Boosibri

@Abuelo said:
So : but not • or ; ?

Basically same variety, two dies, one weakly impressed pellet on top in and one with a weakly impressed bottom comma in the other.

pruebas

Interesting find.

realeswatcher

Very good catch! I wasn't aware of this variety (varieties?).

Sifting through archives, Marti Hervera/ Soler y Llach had one unattributed in Dec. 2012 Auction 74 (Lot 3096).

Your piece is a different die (not simply modified) than the two others (which match each other) you showed below that. Note the position of the "1" of the date vs. the denticles... Also, on yours, the dominant upper dot is positioned a tad higher relative to the "6" than on the pieces with the more pronounced bottom comma thingy.

Yours DOES die match the Dec. 2012 Hervera piece.

Boosibri

@realeswatcher said:
Very good catch! I wasn't aware of this variety (varieties?).

Sifting through archives, Marti Hervera/ Soler y Llach had one unattributed in Dec. 2012 Auction 74 (Lot 3096).

Your piece is a different die (not simply modified) than the two others (which match each other) you showed below that. Note the position of the "1" of the date vs. the denticles... Also, on yours, the dominant upper dot is positioned a tad higher relative to the "6" than on the pieces with the more pronounced bottom comma thingy.

Yours DOES die match the Dec. 2012 Hervera piece.

I think this supports Brad's conclusion of two dies, one with the dot weakly impressed on top and other with it weakly impressed on bottom but none with just a single dot.

asheland

Cool variety, I like that actually.