Rare 1770 Colombia 8 Reales at Auction

Heritage Offers Colombian 1770 NR VJ Pillar Dollar

This may be the first time many of you are seeing this coin. Tonight will be the first time this coin will be offered for public auction. Rare and extremely desireable, the Pillar Dollars of Colombia are seldom seen on the open market and most often trade hands privately. Lot 20694 in tonights Heritage World Coin Auction at the Long Beach Expo presents a great opportunity for the advanced colletor of world crowns and talers or Colombian coinage.

Today I added this date into NumisMaster under Colombia KM#39 8 Reales and tomorrow, I hope to add an auction quote as a footnote to record it's closing price realized.

The full story of this new date for the KM#39 type Pillar Dollar can be found in detail at the Heritage website as part of the lot listing. In brief, fourteen examples were discovered in the foundation of the Nuestra Senora del Pilar church in Bogota about three years ago, with most being privately sold to Museums and private family collections in Colombia and Spain, making this the first publicly recorded sale. Because this date was not recorded prior to this discovery, it seems likely that these coins were specifically struck for the Church dedication.