The Virtual Collection separates numismatics — struck coin — from notaphily. In Spain that gold history runs through the escudo and the royal houses of the peninsula. This case opens with a hammered Seville 2 escudos of Philip II, undated, and continues with the 1757 Madrid half escudo. Neither is colonial gold of Santa Fe, Mexico, or Lima.
Philip II (1556–1598) names the shield and Jerusalem cross of the Seville doubloon: S over a square D. Ferdinand VI (1746–1759) names the half-escudo bust: crowned M and assayers JB. This country’s paper has no records yet; the metal does.
Spain’s paper money does not yet have records in notaphily. Spain · paper case (in preparation)
Coins in the collection
Two unslabbed peninsula gold coins: Philip II’s undated Seville 2 escudos, and the 1757 Madrid half escudo, assayers JB.
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2 escudos · Philip II · 1566–1587
ND (1566–1587) · Unslabbed. Shield and Jerusalem cross well struck; the legend is incomplete on the irregular edge. Not a numerical grade.
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½ escudo · Ferdinand VI · Madrid 1757 JB
1757 · Unslabbed. Visible wear to the portrait and shield; date and principal legends remain readable. Not a numerical grade.
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The catalog
Four chapters, left to right: the gold escudo, Philip II at Seville, the Madrid mint, and Ferdinand VI.
1535–1864
The gold escudo
The escudo was the gold unit of the Spanish monarchy. The half escudo is the small fraction of that series, not a silver real and not an eight-escudo doubloon.
From the sixteenth century the Crown’s gold was counted in escudos. On the peninsula the royal houses struck multiples and fractions by hammer and, later, by mill: the half escudo is the small piece of that scale. Numista rates type KM#378 as a ½ escudo on the real (the 8 on that record is an account equivalent, not a face written on the disc). It is not colonial gold of the Indies — Mexico, Lima, Santa Fe — and not a silver peso. This case records two peninsula gold pieces: an undated hammered Seville 2 escudos of Philip II, and a 1757 Madrid half escudo. Neither is American gold.
1556–1598
Philip II at Seville
Seville’s undated 2 escudos carries the mint S over a square D, and the value II on the other side of the shield.
Philip II reigned from 1556 to 1598. In that span Seville struck hammered gold on irregular planchets, with a crowned shield and a Jerusalem cross inside a four-lobed tressure. Tauler places the square-D type, mint and assayer to the left, in 1566–1587: Áureo & Calicó 828, Friedberg 169, Tauler 31. From 1588 the same house dated 2-escudo pieces of assayer D; a readable year beside the shield would be another type. This case records an example with no date on the planchet and no weight taken. It is not Madrid’s bust half escudo and not Indies gold.
from 1591
The Madrid mint
The Royal Mint of Madrid is identified on this type by the crowned M under the shield, flanked by the assayer initials.
Numista dates the Royal Mint of Madrid from 1591. On the bust half escudo the mark is not a loose M in an Indies legend: it is a crowned M under the quartered arms, between J and B when the assay is that of José Tramullas y Ferrer and Bernardo Muñoz de Amador (Madrid, 1744–1759 and 1747–1759). That triple mark — J, crowned M, B — is what this example reads. It is not Santa Fe’s NR and not Mexico’s Mo.
1746–1759
Ferdinand VI
Ferdinand VI reigned from 1746 to 1759. Madrid’s half escudo with his bust was struck from 1748 to 1759; this record is 1757.
The legend FERDINAND · VI · D · G · is not Ferdinand VII’s. An 1810 of Ferdinand VII reads FERDND VII or FERDINAND VII and, in America, HISPAN ET IND REX. This disc reads HISPANIARUM · REX: king of the Spains, without the Indies in the legend. Calicó 2019 assigns the 1757 Madrid JB to the fourth portrait (Áureo & Calicó#561; in the 2008 edition, Calicó#255). Krause gathers the type as KM#378; Friedberg as Fr#274. Numista names Tomás Francisco Prieto Martín as engraver. This case does not try to cover all Ferdinand gold.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Philip II of Spain (opens in a new tab)
Reign 1556–1598. Frame for the Seville doubloon, not a mint record.
- Wikipedia — Ferdinand VI of Spain (opens in a new tab)
Reign 1746–1759. Frame for the bust, not a mint record.
- Wikipedia — Spanish escudo (opens in a new tab)
The escudo as a gold unit; the 2 escudos and the half escudo as multiple and fraction. Prices are not cited.
- FNMT — History of the Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre (opens in a new tab)
Continuity of the Royal Mint of Madrid. It does not replace this piece’s mint mark.