Jack's Mexican 8 Reales Columnarios of Charles III
1760MO MM "CAROLUS III/FERDIN VI"

Owner Comments:

The 1760 date from Mexico City has four varieties. Although Ferdinand VI died in August of 1759, the Mexico City mint had already started minting the 1760 issues in his name so there exist two varieties with the legends for FERDND VI and CAROLVS III. In addition, some of the dies with the FERDND VI legend were reused -- a common occurrence when a die was not too worn, although it is usually limited to overstamping a new date digit. My coin is from one of the FERDND VI 1760 dies with the monarch's legend polished off and re-punched with CAROLVS III -- a few marks from the underlying legend are still visible. Gilboy M-8-37a R3 (11-25 pieces known). The final, and super rare variety, if it actually exists, has both the CAROLVS III over FERDND VI and 60 over 59 (unlisted in Gilboy).

My acquisition of this coin is an example of the wonderful camaraderie that can develop between collectors, especially those that exchange comments on coin forums. Fellow member TwoKopeiki spotted this coin on eBay in a PCGS holder but without the variety attribution and kindly pointed it out to me. After two tries I got it crossed, albeit with one grade lower.

Slabbed Ebay purchase from January 2017