Home› World & Ancient Coins Forum

The Latin American Gold Coin Market 107 Years Ago

pruebaspruebas Posts: 4,563 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited August 5, 2024 4:23PM in World & Ancient Coins Forum

From The Numismatist, February 1917.

The writing style is a bit cumbersome to read, unfortunately.

OCR version at the end.


LATIN AMERICAN GOLD ISSUES AND RARITIES.

The great rarities in Latin American gold coins are: The 6400 reis, dated 1822, of Peter, the first Emperor of Brazil. This type differs entirely from later issues. Only four specimens exist, two of them being in national museums, and as a rarity this coin is in a class by itself.

Next in rarity are the 8 and 4 escudos of the late Republic of Central America; the 4000 reis, dated 1832 and 1833, of Brazil; the 8 scudos of 1836 of the Argentine Confederation, and also the 8 and 2 scudos dated 1842 of the same country, which differ in type from those struck in 1836, but all showing a bust of General Rosas, the Argentine dictator.

Also in this class are the gold coins of Morelos, the revolutionist leader in Mexico; the 4 scudos dated 1823 of Augustin, first Mexican Emperor. and the 1 escudo and ½ escudo dated 1868 of Bolivia.

In the next class are the 1 scudo and 4 scudos of the Provinces of the River Plata, which is now known as Argentine. Also, the half Argentino or 2½ pesos dated 1881 and 1884 of the last-named country (40 only of these were issued); the 2 and 8 escudos of 1838 of the State of North Peru, which for three years was a part of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation; the 20, 10, 5 and 2½ pesos, all dated 1892, of Salvador; the 1 and 5 pesos of Honduras, and the 8 escudos dated 1845 of Ecuador, which shows on the reverse a shield of arms differing from any that appears on the gold coins of this country in any other year.

In the next class are the 2 and 8 scudos of the Provinces of the River Plata; three different types of 8 scudos of the Argentine Confederation, which do not show the portrait of Rosas; the 4 escudos dated from 1824 to 1834 of Chile; the 8 and 4 scudos of the same country, dated from 1835 to 1838, which are of an entirely different type from the first issue; the 8 and 4 escudos of Ecuador issued before 1845; the 1842 1 escudo of the “State” of Costa Rica, struck by President Carrillo during a revolution; the 4 and 16 pesos of Guatemala issued in 1859 to 1864; the 4 scudos of the Republic of Colombia; the 16 pesos dated 1849 of the Republic of Nueva Granada, and the 20 pesos of the Confederacion Granadina.

Some time must elapse before it can be determined whether the 20, 10 and 5 pesos of the Provisional Government of Oaxaca, Mexico, are great rarities or not. These coins were issued in 1915, and a very few reached the United States. They are considered great rarities, and a well-known European dealer in coins paid a very large price for a set in 1916.

The numismatic or market value of a coin is not always in proportion to its rarity, as that depends largely upon the demand from collectors. Some series are so ignored by collectors in general that a coin belonging to it, although of the utmost rarity, will bring a very small price. Again, some collectors will pay big prices for coin rarities issued by their own country and will not pay much for foreign rarities. Especially is this true of the numismatists of Argentine and Chile. In the former country certain coins sell at 1000 pesos ($440) that have not sold for much over $50 in foreign countries. Brazilians pay large sums for their rarities, but foreign, and especially Portuguese collectors, help to maintain prices for these coins, as there has always been a great many numismatists interested in this series.

The other Latin-American countries have issued gold coins that have become rarities, yet in these other countries are no exorbitant prices asked or at least obtained. The reason may be that the natives for the most part are neither rich enough to indulge in coin collecting nor interested in it.

In these other countries there are no coin dealers, as we understand the term. There are many money-changers who buy coins and paper money of all countries and make change for people who want small denominations for large, or vice versa. They make a small charge for this, and that is their principal business. In their shops can occasionally be found coin rarities in gold, silver, nickel and copper of many countries. The dealer is seldom well versed in coin rarities, and often will ask less for a rare coin than he will for a common one.

Verv few of them appreciate the fact that the Latin American gold coin issued by the countries when they first became independent are, for the most part, now rare, and that some denominations of later issues, and even some types in all denominations, of very recent issues, are extremely rare. For many years they have been buying and changing foreign gold always at a discount greater than the bank exchange rate, and then selling the current coins at the regular exchange rate to the banks. The non-current gold to them is only gold bullion which is disposed of as such and melted. Thus the old Latin American gold issues are fast disappearing and practically have disappeared from circulation. A few hoarded pieces undoubtedly still remain that will be brought out in the future to probably meet the same fate. Even as late as ten years ago large shipments of these old pieces reached the bullion dealers of Europe and the United States, but now they state that they receive practically none. It is questionable if many are in the European collections of coins, and extremely few are in United States collections, as our collectors have almost entirely ignored this series in gold. Outside of those mentioned here as great rarities the Latin American gold coins have as yet not sold at large premiums, although it is certain that all the others can be classified from scarce to extremely rare, with the exception of the recent issues of Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Chile, the 5 pesos of Argentine and a number of the Mexican pieces of old as well as recent issue. Even of the late issues of Chile some of the denominations are rare and others scarce. Collectors will find that the 4 escudo pieces of any type are more difficult to obtain than the other denominations of the same type.

Generally speaking, a small gold coin will not sell at as high a premium over bullion as a large coin of the same type, although both may be equal in rarity. For instance, the Salvador 20, 10 and 5 pesos sell at three times their bullion value, making the premium on the 20 pesos about $40, while the premium on the 5 pesos is only $10. Yet the two coins are of equal rarity and should sell for about the same premium.

The melting up as bullion by foreign dealers is not the only reason why some of the old issues are so rare.. The republicans of Argentine who came into power after the dictator Rosas was gone took measures to melt up coins bearing his portrait or name, and so those pieces became rare even 70 years ago. It is probable that the same happened to the coins of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, and it is reported that Carranza officials confiscated and destroyed the coins issued by the Provisional Government of the State of Oaxaca in 1915.

Outside of gold patterns of types not adopted, gold commemorative and proclamation pieces that passed as money, gold coins of revolutionary leaders and of private issue similar to our so-called Pioneer coins, there are about 190 varieties of Latin American gold coins of regular issue.

Jules Fonrobert, the great collector of American and other coins, endeavored to secure every sort of a coin issued in Latin America, but had only 88 of these gold varieties. It should be stated, however, that at least 27 have been issued since his time.

Neither Ulex, Salbach nor Rosas had quite as many as Fonrobert, but the four collections, if combined, would show only 141 varieties.

One of our best-known numismatists, who has an enormous general collection, has of late years taken an extreme interest in Latin American coins and believes that many of our collectors will eventually turn more naturally to acquiring the coins of our Latin American neighbors than to the coins of the other hemisphere. It is to be hoped that many will do so, for the field is most interesting and varied.

But even if few care to specialize in this series, the general collector should avail himself of every opportunity to obtain the gold Latin American issues, for they are good property now and will be better as time passes.

Comments

Sign In or Register to comment.