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(Philip V 1700-1747)
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Mexican Four Escudos of 1713 From the 1715 PLATE FLEET
1713 was the last year of odd shaped planchets and hand engraved dies at Mexico City. In that year the first Treaty of Utrecht ended the British embargo and Spain resumed regular communication and trade with her New World colonies. We believe new minting equipment and Spanish technicians arrived in Nueva Espana to implement the improvements Philip V had determined to affect at the beginning of his reign. Escudos struck at Mexico City in 1713 display one style of cross, the Cross with Crosslets design introduced in 1711, also known as the Cross Fleury. A simplification in the design of the shield was affedted by eliminating the pomegranate of Granada in the upper left quadrant. 1713 planchets can be round, lunate, pear shaped or almost any shape. No treasure fleet had successfully crossed the Atlantic since January of 1712, so Ubilla's 1715 Flota left Vera Cruz with a fair number of mint condition Mexican escudos 1713-15 on board.
M85. Mexico 1713 Mxo J 4 escudos, cross with crosslets design. Very lustrous and well struck, a spectacular media onza! NGC MS 64 1715 Plate Fleet (one other at this grade, none higher).
The second 1713 four escudos that NGC has graded MS 64 sold recently (April, 2012) in a Heritage auction for $11,000. M85 and that coin are comparable coins in terms of luster and color, but MS85 is much better struck. Mexico 1713 media onzas typically show weak/mushy strikes across part of the shield and into the date, leaving the top part of the 713 digits weak or indistinct. Here we have a full four digit 1713, and the mint mark MXo and assayer's initial J are also full and sharp. The luster and golden color of this media onza belies the 250 years it spent in the ocean off Douglass Beach (the Nieves site). This 4 escudos has the look of a coin struck yesterday.
Available. Price on Request. 480-595-1293
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