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1740-Cow Billon Sous Marques. Vlack 283. Rarity-8.

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:250.00 CAD Estimated At:600.00 - 700.00 CAD
1740-Cow Billon Sous Marques.  Vlack 283.  Rarity-8.
SOLD
250.00CAD+ buyer's premium (50.00)
This item SOLD at 2019 May 02 @ 20:29UTC-4 : AST/EDT

Buyer’s Premiums will be added on all items as per the Terms & Conditions of the sale. Invoices will be emailed out after The Toronto Coin Expo.

Cow – Pau Mint - 1740-Cow Billon Sous Marques. Vlack 283. Rarity-8. Very Good or so, struck on an incredibly flawed planchet with large chunks missing at the left side, these apparently broke off during the striking process from a planchet that was improperly annealed, and one of the most striking planchet errors we have seen in this series! Despite the missing metal, the date and all-important mintmark are both on the planchet, and the only letters of the legend lost are UM of BENEDICTUM on the obverse and FR ET N on the lower reverse. Light silver on mottled russet and darker hue, the surfaces with a light roughness to them. An eye-catching piece, and not only a rare variety but one of the rarest and most desirable of all the mints to strike the Sous Marques! Pau struck the coinage from 1738 or 1739 until 1752 or 1753 (the earliest and latest date reported as struck, but not known to Vlack), but did not strike coins in each year – and never had a high mintage year. Its largest output was for this date, where 85,505 were struck, and by 1746 that number had dropped to just 4,900. Vlack suggests that the low mintages for this mint was because Pau was so close to the border with Spain that it used Spanish coinage in commerce, and the Spanish treasure ships coming from the New World would have brought silver that was far preferable to billon in commerce. Regardless, the coins of Pau are legendarily rare. Ford was never able to locate a single example from the mint, and in his book Vlack notes that one is in the permanent collection of the American Numismatic Society, and (despite the coins of this mint being fairly crude) another is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Pau. Vlack’s own example of this variety was a VF, and went for a bargain price.