Colombia 1968 Gold Coin Help Needed

inkdiver

Bought this gold coin at spot for the gold content at a pawnshop here in Bogotá. It's a 1968 Colombia Gold 100 Pesos Pope Paul VI - International Eucharistic Congress, and weighs 4.3 grams (.900 purity). Researching a bit, I read on colnect.com here, and ucoin.net here that this coin was minted in Arezzo, Italy. I found this odd since my coin has a different mint mark than the photos of those pages.

As you can see on those photos at those sites, the mint mark shows an "NI" mark, while mine shows "B" (which I assume is for Bogotá). Why the two different mint marks on a lower mintage coin? I am confused now if mine was minted in Italy or in Bogotá.

It also says that the BU mintage of this coin is 108.000, and the Proof mintage 8.000. Is my coin a BU or Proof coin? I think mine is a proof, but I am not completely sure.

7Jaguars

I vote proof as it certainly has those characteristics....Krause seems to show the NI Arezzo coin on their plate - which is where a lot of internet sources get their secondary information from.

inkdiver

@7Jaguars said:
I vote proof as it certainly has those characteristics....Krause seems to show the NI Arezzo coin on their plate - which is where a lot of internet sources get their secondary information from.

Yes, it seems some this coin was minted in Arezzo, Italy and in Bogotá. Mine is from the latter. Interesting such a rare, low mintage, numismatic coin was minted in two different locations 9,315 km from each other.

I wonder if the coin being related to the Pope and the Vatican had anything to do with a portion of the coin being minted in Italy. I believe this was the first time a Pope ever set foot on Latin American soil on an official visit.

7Jaguars

Possibly, although the Arezzo mint was striking coins for many other countries such as Anguilla, Haiti, Albania, etc. during this period as well.
I hope yours is rare and recognised as such. I will keep my eyes open for any other information.

inkdiver

@7Jaguars said:
Possibly, although the Arezzo mint was striking coins for many other countries such as Anguilla, Haiti, Albania, etc. during this period as well.
I hope yours is rare and recognised as such. I will keep my eyes open for any other information.

Thank you!

7Jaguars

I see ebay has several "B" minted 1968 coins of all denominations and even the whole Pope set.

inkdiver

@7Jaguars said:
I see ebay has several "B" minted 1968 coins of all denominations and even the whole Pope set.

Yes, I see both "B" and "NI" mintmarks on eBay. Prices are much higher on eBay for this coin, so looks like I got a great price for it! The whole Pope set would be an amazing addition one day (out of my budget currently).

inkdiver

To make matters a bit more confusing, I just saw that the little case the coin came in has the "NI" Arezzo, Italy mint mark

My guess is that this coin was minted in Arezzo, Italy — and they put the "B" Bogotá mint mark on purpose because the coin is about Bogota. The reason being perhaps is that the Bogota Mint has never existed, now that I think of it. Only the Colombian Mint (Casa de Moneda de Colombia), which is the correct name.

7Jaguars

I looked at Gerhard Schon "Welt Munzkatalog" and he lists three types of 1968 Pope 100 Pesos:

• NI
• NI (im Kranz)...I think that means "edge" in German?
• B

All are valued the same in his 2018 catalog at 175 Euros.
Don't know if that helps.

inkdiver

@7Jaguars said:
I looked at Gerhard Schon "Welt Munzkatalog" and he lists three types of 1968 Pope 100 Pesos:

• NI
• NI (im Kranz)...I think that means "edge" in German?
• B

All are valued the same in his 2018 catalog at 175 Euros.
Don't know if that helps.

This is great info, thank you!