Owner Comments:
THIS COIN'S PLACE IN HISTORY
DESCRIPTION:
Reverse:
Crowned pillars and waves in a tic-tac-toe block of nine spaces.
Top Left: Mint Mark (P)
Top Middle: Denomination (8)
Top Right: Assayer Mark (V Jose de Vargas, senior assayer 1760-1773).
Bottom Left: Assayer Y (Raimundo de Yturriaga)
Bottom Middle: Date, three last digits (767)
Bottom Right: Mint Mark repeated (P)
Obverse:
A large cross of Jerusalem dominates, and within the 4 quadrants of the cross are two lions (bottom left and top right) and two castles (bottom right and top left), emblematic of the merger of the two mrdieval kingdoms of Leon (lion) and Castilla (Castile or castle) that formed the nucleus of the unified provinces that became Spain. The denomination is on the rim at 12:00, the assayer's at 3:00, the date at 6:00 and mint mark at 9:00.
HISTORY:
This speciman was designed to meet the requirements of King Philip IV.
This was the so-called "Pillars-and-Waves" design. The pillars are the Pillars of Hercules, a mythological reference to the Straits of Gibraltar, with one pillar in Spain, actually the Rock of Gibraltar, and the other in North Africa, where mountains rise from the coast opposite Gibraltar. Erected by the god Hercules, these two skyward reaches on each side of the entrance to the Mediterranean were considered by the ancients to be the end of the world, "ne plus ultra" (as was often inscribed on early European maps), the "nothing beyond", hence an exit into the unknown. The waves under the pillar represent distance by sea. Emblazoned horizontally across the middle of the pillars was the counter-motto "Plus Ultra", without it's former "ne", hence "more beyond". The message was: Over the waves (Atlantic Ocean), beyond the Pillars of Hercules, a New World (America) exists, with the implication that this New World belongs to Spain.
The Potosi transition period was the beginning of a relatively standard coinage that was to circulate worldwide for well over a hundred years. The mint went into full production of it's new cob coinage and mint records indicate that during 1652 the Potosi mint produced a total of some 2,220,359 pesos, in denominations of 8, 4, 2, 1 and 1/2 reales. To shore up confidence in the new coins, the royal authorities in Maddrid announced an edict of 23 September 1653 that Potosi's coinage would be accepted by all parts of the Spanish empire.
Despite the optimism by the new start, Potosi in fact had entered upon a gradual but steady decline, one that lasted well into the eighteenth century. There were numerous reasons for the decline but the maine reason was the silver ore was generally of lower quality and deeper under ground which reguired ever larger quantites of ore alonf with the expensive mercury.
Despite a series of reforms which included a new mint and new machine made coinage, the mint's output gradually deteriorated until production of cob coinage was terminated in 1773.