Beautiful Gilt Spanish Colonial Medal

CNG 97, Lot: 953. Estimate $750. Sold for $1600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MEXICO, Colonial. Carlos III. King of Spain, 1759-1788. Æ Gilt Proclamation Medal (62.4mm, 96.85 g, 12h). Commemorating the Birth of Prince Fernando. By Geronimo A. Gil. Struck 1785. * CAROL * III * HISP * REGI * CAROL * ET * LUDOVICAE * FIL * FERDINANDO * RECENS * NEPOT * AVGG (from 8 o’clock to 4 o’clock clockwise) METALLICOR * N * HISP * CORP * ERECTO */LAT * LEGIB * HONORIB * CONCESS */SVPP * IPSI * CVDI * F * CIC * IC * CC * LXXX * V in three concentric lines below the busts and head (“The corporation of mines of New Spain, because of the laws and privileges granted, order this coined in 1785”), draped bust of Carlos III right, wearing a sash and the Order of the Golden Fleece, vis à vis, draped busts left of Carlos IV, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, and Maria Luisa; below, the head of the infant Prince Ferdinand VII left / IAM * NOVA * PROGENIES * COELO * DEMITTITVR * ALTO * (“A new breed of men sent down from heaven”), the entrance to a mine with mountains in the background: a central open building containing a rope and pulley system with a bucket; on the right, three figures hammering ore, a furnace behind them; a superintendent standing before them, pointing at a radiant sun; on the left, a figure panning in a stream and various tools and a tablet inscribed 1785 in the foreground; in the exergue, * SVRGET * GENS */* AVREA * MVNDO * in two lines (“A golden lineage is presented to the world”); beneath the exergual inscription in two lines, GRAVADA • EN • MEXICO • POR • GERONI •/• ANTONIO • GIL •. Grove K-82b var. (without gilt). Superb EF, full gilt, faint hairline scratches, die crack on the reverse. A wonderfully executed and complicated design.

Purchased from World-Wide Coins of California (James Elmen), 2010 CICF.