Colombia-Numismatics · colonial Santa Fe

2 escudos coin, n.d.

2 escudos · Bogotá · ND (Philip V)

A gold cob, probably a Santa Fe (Bogotá) 2 escudos in the name of Philip V. Date, assayer, and face value are not securely readable. This disc was not weighed.

Catalog facts

Reference: KM# 17 · Restrepo M80 / KM 17.2 (comparación) · Hernández 708–714 · Numista N#61438
Year: ND
Metal: Gold .917 (type specification)
Mint: Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino, Bogotá (style attribution)
Condition: Unslabbed; no grade assigned. Irregular hammered planchet; shield and cross visible; date, assayer, and value not securely readable. Photographs do not authenticate the disc (private collection)

Obverse, 2 escudos Bogotá ND (Philip V) — Obverse: crowned shield on an irregular planchet; castles and lions apparently transposed; incomplete legend.

Obverse: crowned shield on an irregular planchet; castles and lions apparently transposed; incomplete legend.

Reverse, 2 escudos Bogotá ND (Philip V) — Reverse: cross potent with fleurs-de-lis in a four-lobed tressure with ringlets; no readable date.

Reverse: cross potent with fleurs-de-lis in a four-lobed tressure with ringlets; no readable date.

The piece

This cob is colonial gold of Santa Fe de Nuevo Reino — Bogotá — attributed from the style of the shield and cross, not from a readable mintmark. The planchet is irregular and hammer-struck: it is not Popayán’s 1791 milled 2 escudos, nor Bogotá’s 1795 bust 1 escudo. The obverse shows a crowned shield; the castle and lion quarters appear transposed, a trait Sedwick records on Santafé gold. The reverse carries a cross potent with fleurs-de-lis in the quadrants, inside a four-lobed tressure with ringlets. Legend, date, mintmark, and assayer fall incomplete or off the planchet: no year, secure ordinal, or assayer is assigned. Numista gathers Bogotá’s Philip V 2 escudos type as KM# 17 (N#61438), type gold .917 and 6.77 g, with Hernández 708–714 for distinct dates and assayers. Sedwick cites Restrepo M80 and KM 17.2 on comparables of the same mint and king. Those metal and weight figures were not measured on this specimen: a 1 escudo of the type is about 3.38 g; without a scale reading, the face value stands as 2 escudos from apparent module, not from a readable II. Santa Fe hammered gold runs from 1622 to 1756; Philip V holds the throne from 1700 to 1746, with Louis I’s interval in 1724. This record does not fix an assayer span. No mintage is verified: BanRep’s coin tables begin in 1987. Unslabbed; photographs do not authenticate the metal.

Scarcity

Numista covers type KM# 17 (N#61438) and gathers Hernández 708–714 for distinct dates and assayers. Restrepo M80 / KM 17.2 appear on Sedwick comparables for Bogotá Philip V 2 escudos. This disc has no assigned date or assayer; no census and no price are published. Popayán’s 1791 2 escudos and Bogotá’s 1795 1 escudo are separate records in this collection.

Sources

Numista — 2 escudos, Philip V, Colombia (N#61438) (opens in a new tab)
KM# 17 for Santa Fe; type gold .917 and 6.77 g; Hernández 708–714 by date and assayer. No mintage and no value are cited here, and the type weight is not copied onto this disc.
Daniel Frank Sedwick — Collecting Colombian cob 2 escudos (opens in a new tab)
Shield and cross style, Bogotá and Cartagena mints, and the 1622–1756 span. It does not assign a date or assayer to this disc.
Sedwick — Bogotá 2 escudos, Philip V, Restrepo M80 / KM-17.2 (comparable) (opens in a new tab)
Treasure Auction 17, lot 52: full shield and cross with ringlets in the tressure; assayer not visible. Not this specimen; the hammer is not published.
Hernández — Coins and Banknotes of Colombia, 8th ed. 2023 (Numista L100183) (opens in a new tab)
Numista splits Cód. 708–714 by date and assayer of type KM# 17. With no year or assayer read, this record takes no Cód. Price columns are not copied.
Banco de la República — History of the Coin Factory (opens in a new tab)
Effective founding in 1620. Mint context, not authentication of this disc. The coin tables open in 1987.