World Gold - 1808PTS PJ Bolivia 8 Escudos NGC MS63

When you own a coin such as this; you actually can hold Spanish-American colonial history in your hand. The Mint of Potosí is located in the Bolivian city of Potosí. The vast majority of the silver shipped through the Spanish Main came from the Potosí mint. All coinage minted there was so famous that a well-known expression came to be: valer un potosí; “to be worth a potosí” (“a fortune”). This saying was memorialized by Miguel de Cervantes; the author of Don Quixote.  It was silver mining at Cerro Rico (a vast mountain of silver ore that is 2;000 feet above the city); combined with steady population growth; as well as commercial development and Potosí’s impressive height (the city is perched 13;200 feet above sea level) that inspired Spain to build a mint and begin striking coins. Employing rudimentary technology; the first mint at Potosí was operational from 1572 to 1767. Upon hearing about the cost of the mint; King Charles III of Spain is believed to have said; “the whole building must be made of pure silver.”A new; second mint was erected in the nearby plaza del Gato. Construction began in 1757 ending in 1770. Hammered coinage was produced from the very beginning until 1773. The first screw-press coins were crafted in 1767 and that process was used until movable steam presses were installed at the mint in 1869. Research has not uncovered any gold deposits in Potosí or elsewhere in Spanish colonial Bolivia. Therefore it must have been transported from elsewhere in Spanish America in order to mint gold 8 Escudos and other gold coins.