Colombia-Numismatics · colonial Santa Fe

1 escudo coin, 1811

1 escudo · Bogotá NR–JF · 1811

An 1811 gold escudo struck at Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino (Bogotá) in the name of Ferdinand VII. The obverse keeps Charles IV’s bust; the reverse, the value 1 S and the marks NR · JF.

Catalog facts

Reference: KM# 64.1 · Restrepo 122.7 · Calicó 1548 · Cayón 16137 · Hernández 690 · Fr#65 · Numista N#61388
Year: 1811
Metal: Gold .875 (type specification)
Mint: Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino, Bogotá (NR)
Condition: Unslabbed; no grade assigned. Heavily worn portrait and a clearer reverse; yellow surface with darker recesses, scratches, and marks. Date 1811, 1 S, and NR–JF readable. Photographs do not authenticate the disc (private collection)

Obverse, 1 escudo 1811 — Obverse: bust of Charles IV facing right, Ferdinand VII legend, and the date 1811.

Obverse: bust of Charles IV facing right, Ferdinand VII legend, and the date 1811.

Reverse, 1 escudo 1811 — Reverse: crowned arms and the Golden Fleece; 1 S; mintmark NR and assayer JF beside the fleece.

Reverse: crowned arms and the Golden Fleece; 1 S; mintmark NR and assayer JF beside the fleece.

The piece

In 1811 the Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino mint, at Bogotá, was still striking milled gold, already with Ferdinand VII’s legend. This disc shows the date 1811 under the portrait, the value 1 S, and, on either side of the fleece, mintmark NR for Nuevo Reino and the assayer initials JF. That is type KM# 64.1 — Restrepo 122.7, Calicó 1548, Cayón 16137, Hernández 690, Friedberg 65 — not Charles IV’s KM# 56.1 (NR–JJ, 1795 and 1802 in this collection) and not Popayán’s KM# 64.2 (Hernández 691, Friedberg 66). CoinVarieties notes that Popayán does not seem to have struck the 1 escudo in 1811. Normalized obverse legend: FERDND · VII · D · G · HISP · ET IND · R · 1811; it expands to Ferdinandus VII Dei Gratia Hispaniarum et Indiarum Rex: “Ferdinand VII, by the grace of God, king of the Spains and the Indies.” The portrait remains Charles IV facing right: the king named in the legend is not the bust on the coin. Reverse: IN · UTROQ · FELIX · A · D ·, for In utroque felix, auspice Deo. The 1 at left and S at right mark one escudo, not 15. Gold .875 and a type weight of about 3.38 g — Numista gives 3.3834 g; Hernández records 3.389 g — are catalogue figures: this disc was not weighed or measured. CoinVarieties notes 0.095 troy oz of fine gold on that weight. Numista gives the type a milled technique and medal alignment; these photographs do not show the edge and do not fix this disc’s axis. No mintage is verified: CoinVarieties leaves the striking unstated, Numista publishes none for this year, and BanRep’s coin tables begin in 1987. That same year Cundinamarca’s constitution, promulgated on 4 April 1811, asserted local sovereignty while retaining recognition of Ferdinand VII; the royal image on this disc fits that transition, without treating the coin as an issue of that constitution. Unslabbed; photographs do not authenticate the metal. It is not Bogotá’s 1810 silver real, nor the patriot copper of Cartagena in this collection.

Scarcity

Numista covers type KM# 64.1 (N#61388) and lists the 1811 NR–JF as Hernández 690, without a mintage. It also lists an 1811 NR–JJ, not confirmed by Hernández. CoinVarieties documents the 1811 NR–JF as Cayón 16137, Friedberg 65, KM 64.1, and Restrepo 122.7, and treats that year’s JJ as more common; it leaves the striking unstated. Sedwick gathered the same references — plus Calicó 1548 — for an NGC MS64 example in November 2024, which it described as the finest then in the NGC census; that is a condition-rarity note on another disc, not a survivor count or the grade of this record. This record does not invent a census or publish prices.

Sources

Numista — 1 escudo, Ferdinand VII (portrait of Charles IV), Colombia (N#61388) (opens in a new tab)
KM# 64.1 for the NR mint; 1811 NR–JF is listed as Hernández 690. Type gold .875 and 3.3834 g. It also lists an 1811 NR–JJ not confirmed by Hernández. No mintage and no value are cited here.
Hernández — Coins and Banknotes of Colombia, 8th ed. 2023 (Numista L100183) (opens in a new tab)
Numista assigns Cód. 690 to the Ferdinand VII NR–JF with the bust of Charles IV. Fineness 0.875 and weight 3.389 g. Price columns from that edition are not copied, and no mintage is read from them.
CoinVarieties — Bogotá 1 escudo, Ferdinand VII, 1811 NR–JF (opens in a new tab)
Cayón 16137, Friedberg 65, KM 64.1, and Restrepo 122.7. Leaves the mintage unstated. It treats the 1811 JJ as more common and notes that Popayán does not seem to have struck this module that year. The Stack’s Bowers lot it illustrates is another specimen; prices are not published.
Sedwick — Bogotá 1 escudo, Ferdinand VII, 1811 JF (NGC MS64) (opens in a new tab)
KM-64.1, Restrepo 122.7, Calicó 1548, and Friedberg 65. A November 2024 comparable; not this specimen, and prices and this record’s grade are not published.
Cervantes Virtual — Constitution of Cundinamarca (4 April 1811) (opens in a new tab)
The 1811 constitutional text: local sovereignty with recognition of Ferdinand VII. Historical context, not authentication of this disc.
Banco de la República — Production and circulation (opens in a new tab)
The coin tables open in 1987. There is no 1811 row to stand in for a catalog mintage.