robec1347

A couple of SMS Washingtons.

Thanks Joe! Right back at you……..and I don’t only mean Buffs.

I bought this from a forum member 10 years ago when he posted it here.

The golden age end in 1947 with the Walkers.

They would have been cartoony no matter which mint took over proof production. The phony cameo effect they use now wasn’t due to being made in San Francisco.

I just found this. I had heard of cobs, but like you I had no idea how it related to early silver. What is a cob of silver? In fact, the Spanish word "cabo" (from which the English "cob" is derived) refers to the end; in this instance, the clump of silver clipped off the end of the bar. The size, shape and impression of these cobs was highly irregular but they were the proper weight. Many cobs were quite thick and disfigured with large cracks. https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/Sp-Cobs.intro.html

Same coin different light position.

That was from when I had a set in the NGC registry. This was an NGC PF68 Cameo

In looking at some images (thanks to google) it appears, besides the normal round, they came in all sorts of irregular shapes and sizes. These were also coins that were often clipped into smaller bits. This is where the terms 2 bits, 4 bits, etc come from. In the case of 8 reales, which was the origin of the American Pillar Dollar, pieces of 8 could be clipped off for trading. I’m sure you knew this. I’m sure it’s much more complicated than my description. I believe 16 reales equal 1 escudo.