After 2 years of searching daily for early milled 1 reales Peru and Guatemala

Early_Milled_Latin_America

For those that may be new (er) here and collect or want to colelct these series.

How many I have seen (many auction houses + dealer sites + eBay):

Peru 1751-1772 = 123 coins total (I have seen every date minus the 1751 and the 1760 Carolus variety)

Guatemala 1754-1771 = 18 coins total (still 8 dates I have yet to see)

As one can see Guatemala are much rarer (as was expected based on Yonaka). Guatemala shows up about 6-7 times less often than Peru.

Early_Milled_Latin_America

Based on how many Peru 1 reales I saw during the 2 years one could have completed 1 full date set (almost 2 sets ...with the 1768 missing) 1752-1772.

Rarest and how many I saw:

1751 = 0
1760 Carolus variety = 0
1768 = 1
1766 = 2
1752 = 3
1772 = 4

All in all I saw very few in EF or better condition of any dates 1752-1772. Many had holes (around 40%) and the nicer coins were mostly the more common dates such as 1753,1757,1759 and so on.

MEJ7070

Early_Milled_Latin_America

@MEJ7070 said:

Hahaha!!! For Peru 1 reales yes as far as other denominations go from that era I have no clue. I have heard that one specific date from the Guatemala series has yet to show up for sale in the last 40+ years from a long long time collector (he has most of the Guatemala early pillars by date and denominations) coins minus this date for the 1 reales). So taking that into account maybe it is not doable. But there are at least 2 known of that extremely rare date.

WCC

Outside the 1751 and 1752, the mintages for the Peru dates aren't actually low, only relatively to more recent coinage especially with larger populations and economies.

Guatemala mintages outside of the 8R are very low by contemporary standards. Highest one I recall offhand is around 20,000 for the 1759 1/2R.

That's the primary reason for the scarcity difference. With a starting point up to 200X+ higher (1767 Peru 1/2R vs. one or more of the Guatemala dates), it's not surprising the G mint is so much scarcer or harder to find.

SimonW

I’ve only ever seen one 1/2R pillar from Guatemala up for sale. Over a five year span.

I’ve been able to procure six 1R pillars from Guatemala without holes, all certified. At this point I may be stuck. Most are very low grade.

WCC

@SimonW said:
I’ve only ever seen one 1/2R pillar from Guatemala up for sale. Over a five year span.

I’ve been able to procure six 1R pillars from Guatemala without holes, all certified. At this point I may be stuck. Most are very low grade.

I own two "G" mint 1/2R, but this mint isn't one I'm looking as hard to buy. I bought the 1763 VG-8 (then raw) in 2004 and the Stuart 1759 F-15 a few years before COVID, both from eBay.