Owner Comments:
THIS COIN'S PLACE IN HISTORY
This is the third type of Spanish colonial silver coinage struck in the New World and is known as the Shield and Cross type. These were the first of the crude cobs and were all undated. These coins were struck by hand at the Mexico, Santo Domingo, Lima, La Plata, Potosi, Panama, Cartagena and Bogota mints in the time period of 1572 to 1734. The design incorporated the Spanish coat of arms or shield on the obverse side and a cross representing the union of Church and State on the reverse. Shield type cob coinage was first struck at the Mexico City mint in 1572 and ceased production in 1733 when it was replaced by the machine struck Pillar Dollar.
DESCRIPTION:
OBVERSE: Crowned arms, mint mark (Mo) and assyer's initial B (Hernando Ballesteros) to the left, denomination (8) to the right.
Legend in Latin incircling the rim: (PHILIPPVS D.G. HISPANIARVM)
REVERSE: Cross of Jerusalem in tressure, castles and lions in quarters. Legend incircling the rim: (ET INDIARVM REX).
LEGEND TRANSLATION:(Philip by the Grace of God King of Spain and the Indies)
HISTORY:
The Lima mint also struck shield type coins in 1572, but only a few coins were minted before operations ceased the same year. Potosi began striking coins in 1574 using dies from the Lima mint. Shield type production ceased at Potosi in 1652, because of the great scandle, and was replaced by the "Pillar and Waves" design.
As additional silver deposits were discovered in the colonial territories there was a pressing demand to export it to Spain as quickly as possible. To do this, starting in the reign of Philip II, the mints produced irregular coinage called cobs. Rather than rolling out a bar of silver into a sheet of a specific thickness that could then be cut into smooth round planchets which would be stamped into coins, a faster method was employed. A bar of silver was simply cut into chunks of the appropriate weight. These small sliver chunks were then treated as if they were finished planchets and were hammer struck between crude dies. The size, shape and impression of these cobs was highly irregular but they were the proper weight. Many cobs were quite thick and disfigured with large cracks. Also, these uneven clumps made poor planchets so that frequently only a small portion of the image on the die was impressed on the silver. If a cob was overweight the minter simply clipped a piece off, further disfiguring the coin.