Description:
The Great Transition at the Potosí Mint, 1649-1653: The 1649-1652 Crowned Shield Coinage and the Countermarks of 1652 - Part A: The 1649-1652 Crowned Shield Coinage - by Robert Mastalir. (270 pages) ISBN: 978-0-9820818-8-4An exhaustive study and census of the issues of silver coinage in the Shield Type design from the mint of Potosí, Bolivia, in the years 1649-1652, covering three assayers (Zambrano, Rodas and Elgueta) and four dates (1649, 1650, 1651 and 1652), with a thorough treatment of every die and combination (obverse and reverse) based on careful examination of thousands of actual coins, most recovered from the shipwrecks Capitana (sunk in 1654 off Ecuador) and Maravillas (sunk in 1656 off the Bahamas), both ships representing a time capsule of coinage that was otherwise destroyed when new coinage at higher value was instituted in 1652.The Great Transition at the Potosí Mint, 1649-1653: The 1649-1652 Crowned Shield Coinage and the Countermarks of 1652 - Part B: The Countermarks of 1652by Robert Mastalir. (562 pages) ISBN: 978-0-9820818-9-1The complexity of Potosí's silver coinage in the Shield Type design of 1649-1652 is compounded by the fact that most of it was countermarked by various Royal representatives to attest to their proper fineness, after the revelation of a mint scandal in which it was discovered that Potosí's coinage from prior decades had been struck from debased silver, for which several officials were eventually executed. This volume is a complete examination of all the known countermarked coins (numbering in the thousands), most from the shipwrecks Capitana (sunk in 1654 off Ecuador) and Maravillas (sunk in 1656 off the Bahamas), thoroughly organized into types and subtypes, with complete census information for all the countermarks.Total pages: 837 Total weight: 6.20 lbs.Shipping method: USPS Priority medium box. Sold as a set. TWO VOLUMES in this listing. Publisher: Sedwick & Associates, LLC.NOTE: We also offer Volumes 1 and 2 which were reprinted in 2022 in a very limited edition of 35 copies. Look for those to have the complete Mastalir Series in this Masterful Projecto done by Robert Mastalir