High up in the Andes, a mint was established by the conquering Spaniards at the foot of a mountain known as Cerro Rico. The name translates to "rich mountain." And it was rich: the slopes were filled with thick veins of silver, perhaps the largest silver deposit known on the planet. The city of Potosi was established and quickly grew to be one of the largest in the world with a population of 160,000 by 1650.
Coinage began about 1573. The Spanish system of "renting" out administrative positions at the mint invited avaricious practices among greedy mint officials. These clever fellows debased the coinage. Hence, they filled their pockets with silver. The whole enterprise was hidden by the tendency to produce crudely struck coins (known as "cobs" or hunks of silver).
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| This 1652 piece-of-eight was the first in a series of designs produced at Potosi to improve accountability. It is a bold cob with strong strike but corroded by the sea. It is the perfect relic with a great story that starts with greedy mint assayers and their punishments, a coinage overhaul, ending with a Spanish galleon breaking apart on a reef. |
When the royal government discovered the cheat, Phillip IV ordered a series of investigations. One of the earliest inquires began in 1616. The result was a tightening of mining regulations, plus the addition of dates placed on the cobs (starting in 1617) to improve accountability.
But this did not improve the situation, and by the mid-1640s, the problem had worsened. The cobs from this period were under-weight and choked with base metals. The dates were barely readable on the cobs, as they were so crudely struck.
New investigations were started in the late-1640s that resulted in a complete overhaul of the coinage. In addition, several mint officials were put behind bars -- plus at least two were strung-up by their necks.
This cob is the first of the new coinage that began in March, 1652. This piece is one of my favorites, as the design presents a bold take on the old pillar-and-waves motif that boasted of Spain's claim to all lands discovered in the New World. The crowned pillars represent the pillars of Hercules marked by the straits of Gibraltar. The motto -- plvs vltra -- translates to "more beyond" and refers to all the lands across the Atlantic. The phrase is a shrewd re-wording of non plvs vltra found on pre-Columbian maps that suggested that no lands existed beyond the ocean.
There is more to this story, but for now I invite you to enjoy the cob. It is a nice round one with a strong strike that has been eroded by the sea. As such, this piece-of-eight came from a sunken galleon -- I would guess it to be the Capitana that broke apart on the reefs off Ecuador in 1654. This ship wreck has produced most of the so-called transitional cobs of 1652.
There were several distinct design-types of cobs produced throughout 1652, as the mint officials were tasked to come up with a design that insured accountability (as was done in 1617). By the end of the year, they had developed a design that showed the date, mintmark, and assayer initial no less than three times! This particular cob represents the first in the series of 1652 transitional cobs. It is a storied relic for the coin collecting necromancer.
