robec1347

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.

Very same coin. I never did try an upgrade. I had a couple in the set I thought were great upgrade candidates, but that’s the only one I have found that has been successful. I’ve seen gradeflation work on both sides. I’ve also seen grades go down on both sides.

The PCGS (which this coin was) pops are a little different. It shows three 69’s and 9 in 68+. The hammer price almost doubled the guide price, listed as $50,000. The guide on 68+ is $17,500. I sold my set in 2008, which included a 1936 Satin graded PR67 at the time. It has since been upgraded to PR68+. Really wish I still had the set.

I’m pretty sure reales were made from silver. Escudos were made from gold.

I know it’s dark side, but I don’t have many with beards. It’s the guy on the right.

Besides the possibility of the initials being polished off there is also the possibility of an over used die having them worn off.

I’ve never heard that. I thought the only reason VDB didn’t appear on all issues after 1918 was if some eager mint worker over polished the die in that area.

I copied this from a CU discussion from January 2022. Long read/interpretation for the legal department of PCGS. https://gata.org/files/VonNotHausForfeitureOrder-12-2-2014.pdf Judge Voorhees makes it very clear that many of the Liberty Dollar specie do not qualify as counterfeit. The first concrete statement confirming this fact is found at the bottom of page 15. Judge Voorhees goes on to specify which pieces are clearly NOT counterfeit on page 18.

Each bought years apart from each other as well as from different sellers.