401, Lot: 711. Estimate $300. Sold for $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MEXICO, Colonial. Carlos III. King of Spain, 1759-1788. Æ Proclamation Medal (59mm, 115.35 g, 12h). Commemorating the Royal Academy of Spanish and Common Law. By Geronimo A. Gil. Struck 1778. * CARLOS * III * PADRE * DE * LA * PATRIA * Y * PROTECTOR * DE * LAS * CIENCIAS *, cuirassed bust right, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Order of Carlos III / * VENCE * Y * TRIUNFA * EL * MAS * PRUDENTE * around, * REAL * ACADEMIA * DE * DERECHO * / * ESPANOL * Y * PUBLICO * / * ANO * DE * 1778 * in the exergue in three lines, a rocky outcropping surmounted by a table with a group of figures around it; several books on the table; a draped figure with a staff approaching the table from the left, a second kneeling by a tree to the right; G.A. GIL (engraver) on a rock just above the exergual line. Grove K-75b. EF, or better, reddish-brown patina, minor stains in the obverse field, minor porosity.

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

A wonderful medal with a superb allegorical scene on the reverse. Grove states on page 40 that “The dies for K-75 were lost. The second set of dies (K-76) were almost exactly the same. The engraver is shown as ‘GIL’ instead of ‘G.A. Gil.’” This is not quite accurate as the dies were not lost, but rather captured with the Spanish ship El Postillon de México, along with the medals struck from them in gold, silver, and bronze, by a British privateer ship (for a contemporary account, see The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle issue of November 1784, Vol. LIV, Part II, p. 817 and illustrated with a wonderful line drawing on pl. II, fig. 1). The captured medals and dies were taken back to London, where they subsequently entered the marketplace (“sold by the candle at New Lloyd’s Coffee-house, Dec. 1, 1779, by Tho. Hubbert, together with 293 medals, 12 gold, 150 silver, 125 copper, and 6 brass”). A second set of dies and medals where then created, and as Grove notes, the only easy way to differentiate between them is the engraver’s abbreviated signature. To read more about this fascinating event, please see the article by Carlos Jara in the U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association Journal (“A Rare and Important Mexican Colonial Medal,” March 2013, pp. 24-25). Jara concludes that the correct mintage figure for this medal, from both set of dies, in copper and bronze is 374.