Jester's Challenge #9

1jester

Welcome, Darkside Collectors (and all others who wish to participate)!!!

Inspired by others here on the Darkside forum, including Severo, Rublevik, Ajaan, Cacheman, Aethelred, Mongoose, Wybrit, LordMarcovan, Askari, Shirohniichan and many others, I'd like to start what I hope will turn into a great learning experience for all of us. The above-mentioned members, and many others, have done a formidable job in sharing with us many fascinating and historically important coins. Since that's one of the greatest pleasures to me, I'd like to try to follow in that time-honored tradition and submit for your pleasure and entertainment some world coins I've come across in my short lifetime.

I will pick out a coin on a regular basis, and post it along with the challenge to you to name the coin, its provenance, denomination, metallic content, mintage, any distinguishing characteristics or noteworthy features, and its value. The more information, the better. I'd like as many people as possible to participate, regardless of how little knowledge you might have on the subject. I appreciate comments on every aspect of the coin, including its history, or its role in human history, or info on similar coins in its series, etc. I myself don't assume to know 1/100 of what you collectively know, hence my challenge to all of you to share your knowledge with the rest of us. Hopefully this exercise will encourage thought, discussion, and primarily more friendship.

Thanks for your participation!!!

Here goes the ninth selection:

Rublevik

Not much to say.

Mexico City mint - Cap & ray silver 8 reales.

The Eagle & snake references a legend (Aztec, if memory is correct) about where the city should be built ("where you see an eagle tearing apart a snake").

The cap is a Phrygian cap, long symbolic of freedom ("libertad").

wybrit

These coins were frequently used for trade in eastern Asia as well. We found a bunch out there while living in Singapore and Sumatra.

Severo

I like this particular series and have recently started to buy these coins, grading from VF+ to UNC. I find them moderately priced (at least in Russia and Spain) for the aesthetic and historical value they have. My idea is to get as many Mint/Initials varieties as I can. I also take the later 1 peso pieces which have nearly identical design.

Severo

Severo

By the way, is the coin chopmarked twice?

Severo

Severo

Sorry for the triple posting, but I also think I see what looks like die cracks on the reverse.

Severo

Steve27

"The State Emblem was first adopted in 1823 and the eagle and snake have served ever since the Emblem or Arms of then successive republics and empires. It will be immediately apparent that the three hundred years of Spanish rule have been judiciously ignored, and in fact the Emblem recalls an old Indian legend: The Aztec people were guided by Huitzilopochtli to seek a place where an eagle landed on a pr1ckly-pear cactus, eating a snake... After hundreds of years of wandering they found the sign on a small swampy island in Lake Texcoco. Their new home they named Tenochtitlan (“Place of the Pr1ckly Pear Cactus”). In A.D. 1325 they built a city on the site of the island in the lake; this is now the centre of Mexico City. The emblem was re-approved in 1934 and slightly modified in 1968; the plant is a nopal cactus. "

1jester

Severo, yes, there is a series of die cracks running around the reverse.

And I'm surprised that Shiroh didn't notice this, but yes, there are 2 chopmarks on the obverse and 2 on the reverse.

Thanks for the input, guys!

1jester

ttt