Colombia-Numismatics · Independence

1 escudo coin, 1820

1 escudo · Bogotá NR–JF · 1820

An 1820 gold escudo struck at Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino (Bogotá) in the name of Ferdinand VII, with the bust of Charles IV. The obverse carries the date; the reverse, the value 1 S and the marks NR · JF.

Catalog facts

Reference: KM# 64.1 · Restrepo 122.27 · Calicó 1559 · Hernández 690 · Fr#65 · Cayón 16191 · Numista N#61388
Year: 1820
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; irregular edge. Date 1820, 1 S, and NR–JF readable. Photographs do not authenticate the disc (private collection)

Obverse, 1 escudo 1820 — Obverse: bust of Charles IV facing right, Ferdinand VII legend, and the date 1820.

Obverse: bust of Charles IV facing right, Ferdinand VII legend, and the date 1820.

Reverse, 1 escudo 1820 — 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 1820 the Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino mint, at Bogotá, was still striking milled gold from royal dies. Boyacá had been in August 1819; Bolívar took the house and, on 18 August, asked for the Indian type. This disc, however, names Ferdinand VII and keeps Charles IV’s bust. It shows the date 1820 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 122.27, Calicó 1559, Hernández 690, Friedberg 65, Cayón 16191 — not Charles IV’s KM# 56.1 with the legend CAROL IIII, which the 1795 Bogotá record documents, nor Popayán’s KM# 64.2. Normalized obverse legend: FERDND · VII · D · G · HISP · ET IND · R · 1820; 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.” Reverse: IN · UTROQ · FELIX · A · D ·, for In utroque felix, auspice Deo. The 1 at left and S at right mark one escudo. Gold .875 and a type weight of about 3.38 g are figures from Numista and CoinVarieties; CoinVarieties notes 0.095 troy oz of fine gold on that weight. This disc was not weighed or measured. 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: Numista publishes no figure, CoinVarieties leaves the striking unstated, PCGS records N/A for coin number 755868, and BanRep’s coin tables begin in 1987. Unslabbed; photographs do not authenticate the metal. It is not the 1820 Santa Marta copper siege cuartillo, nor Bogotá’s 1826 gold peso.

Scarcity

Numista covers type KM# 64.1 (N#61388) and lists the 1820 NR–JF as Hernández 690, without a mintage. CoinVarieties documents that date and assayer as Cayón 16191, Friedberg 65, and KM# 64.1, and leaves the striking unstated; it calls the Ferdinand VII type with Charles IV’s bust — Bogotá 1808–1820 and Popayán 1808–1819 — among the more available Spanish colonial gold. That is neither a survivor census nor a mintage for this year. Áureo & Calicó described the 1820 Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino JF as scarce (AC. 1559, Restrepo 122-27); that lot is not this specimen, and neither an estimate nor a hammer is published here. PCGS gathers the 1820-NR JF under coin number 755868, with mintage N/A; this record does not copy a slab census. BanRep’s coin tables begin in 1987.

Sources

Numista — 1 escudo, Ferdinand VII with the bust of Charles IV (N#61388) (opens in a new tab)
KM# 64.1 for the NR mint; 1820 NR–JF is listed as Hernández 690. Type gold .875 and about 3.38 g. Milled; medal alignment. No mintage and no value are cited here.
CoinVarieties — Bogotá 1 escudo, Ferdinand VII, 1820 NR–JF (opens in a new tab)
Cayón 16191, Friedberg 65, and KM# 64.1. It leaves the mintage unstated. The Eliasberg lot it illustrates is another specimen; prices are not published.
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 of this type, with Charles IV’s bust. Price columns from that edition are not copied, and no mintage is read from them.
PCGS — 1820-NR JF escudo, Restrepo 122.27, Calicó 1559 (no. 755868) (opens in a new tab)
Confirms Restrepo 122.27 and Calicó 1559 for that date and mint. Mintage N/A. This disc is unslabbed; neither a census nor a hammer is copied.
Áureo & Calicó — Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino 1 escudo, Ferdinand VII, 1820 JF (opens in a new tab)
Auction comparable: AC. 1559 and Restrepo 122-27; it describes the combination as scarce. Not this specimen, and prices are not published.
Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — Financing independence (opens in a new tab)
Bolívar’s 18 August 1819 order to strike the Indian type, after taking the Bogotá and Popayán mints.