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 1757 Madrid half escudo, not with colonial gold of Santa Fe, Mexico, or Lima.
Ferdinand VI (1746–1759) names the bust. The crowned M and assayers JB identify the Royal Mint of Madrid. 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
One unslabbed 1757 Madrid gold half escudo, assayers JB. Further coin pages will be published as they are documented.
The catalog
Three chapters, left to right: the gold escudo, the Madrid mint, and Ferdinand VI. Below, the record of the 1757 half escudo documented in this collection.
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 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 a Madrid half escudo, not American 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 — 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 half escudo as a 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.