When did PCGS start grading Portraits? Mexico

Tunis

For long time members, do you remember first submissions for Mexico Portraits? Trying to gauge what could possibly be out there, in older holders. Thanks in advance.

TwoKopeiki

There are definitely a lot more Mexico Portraits in older NGC holders as PCGS wasn't really widely accepted by the world collecting community until 10-15 years ago. (Some might say that it's still not widely accepted for world coins).

I started submitting portraits around 2006. Around that time there were roughly 120-150 PCGS certified portrait 8 Reales. In 2008 I worked with BJ Searls on the compositions for the first Mexico 8 Reales Type Sets. And then additional ruler-specific 8R sets in 2012. With registry sets underway I started to keep track of individual coins in the census. As of April 2012 there were 341 PCGS certified coins in the Portrait 8 Reales series. That's also around the time when I started to chase varieties. The first 2 varieties certified this side of the street being an AU50 1811/0-HJ I bought from Craig Keplinger in an old ANACS soapbox and an AU50 1810/09 I picked up on eBay raw and graded around 2009.

There's probably not a whole lot in "older holders". The oldest documented cert numbers for portrait 8's I have are in the 030XXXX range and those were Pittman pedigreed pieces sold by Teletrade in Dec of 1999. If there are specific dates you're looking to get pop report info as of early 2010's - let me know.

Edited to add: as of today there are nearly 2,100 Mexico City Portrait 8's in the census.

Tunis

Thanks for a great write up!!!

I found a 1798-Mo FM PCGS XF45 that was auctioned at Heritage on June 4, 2004 for $149.50.

TomB

I'm not certain if I have something that you are asking about, but I own a 1792-NG M PCGS EF45 8R in an OGH and have owned it for years. If you are specifically asking about the Mo issues then this clearly isn't what you are interested in finding. The OGH was discontinued in September/October 1998.