On December 10, the Swiss company “Numismática Genevensis” will auction a unique piece, the “Holy Grail of Navarrese numismatics”, according to historian Mikel Zuza: the 8 golden escudos of Philip VI of Navarre (IV of Spain) minted in Pamplona in 1652. It is a piece of which only this copy exists and so coveted that the last time it was sold at auction, the year In 2012, its price closed at 525,000 euros. On this occasion, the starting price will be 400,000 Swiss francs (426,375.60 euros at the exchange rate).
The rarity of this unique piece lies in its history, that of an appeal by the monarch to the Navarrese courts. Its origin dates back to the so-called “Potosí scandal”, one of the greatest economic frauds of modern times committed in Peruvian currency (Potosí was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1776 ), one of the most important in the world, and which consisted of minting coins with a lower silver content than they should have had (these were 8 reales coins which should in reality have a value of 6 because they contained less money). The scandal broke out in 1648 when some merchants detected it in Europe, even causing the start of the rejection of Spanish colonial currency in some ports. This forced King Philip IV to take measures so that traders around the world did not lose confidence in the Castilian currency.
The solution adopted was to collect all the counterfeit coins and re-mint them “in accordance with the law”, as historian Javier Bergua explains in his book “History of the Currency of Navarre”. Given the volume of parts to be remade, it was necessary to reopen the workshops which had been closed for some time. One of them was that of Pamplona, which, under the reigns of the Catholic kings and Charles I, had minted gold coins, but under the reign of Philip IV it only had authorization to engrave copper coins for local circulation.
In this way, at the Pamplona mint, between 1651 and 1652, coins were issued with the engraving of the Castilian currencies ‘Philippus Dei Gratia Castelle et Navarrae rex’ (Philippus, king of Castile and Navarre by grace of God), without ordinal and with a reference to the monarch as king of Castile and Navarre. This fact was received as a great insult by the Navarrese courts, who considered the episode as an infraction of the jurisdiction, which declared that on the coins minted in Navarre would only appear the coat of arms of Navarre and the specific Navarrese title, in the case of Philip IV of Spain, should come out as VI of Navarre. The Navarrese courts ordered the issuance of these coins to be stopped and filed a complaint with the monarch, which was accepted.
As compensation for the violation of jurisdiction, Philip IV authorized for a short period in 1652 an extraordinary and very limited minting of the most important gold coins of the kingdom (eight and four escudos), as well as of the entire silver series , with the corrected caption ‘Philippus Sextus dei Gratia Navarrae rex’ (Philippus VI king of Navarre by the grace of God).
Thus, this 8 escudos coin was struck from 1652 with the mint mark AP (Pamplona), whose obverse stamp was found in 1866 in the Archives of the Foral Deputation of Navarre and which is today today at the Navarre Museum. The coin was struck with a hammer, while in Segovia the mint already had hydraulic technology that allowed the coins to be engraved with a roller, then it was revised by hand, making it even more unique. if possible.
The coin was described by numismatist Aloiss Heiss in 1869, when the specimen belonged to Count d’Ezpeleta de Veire. Years later, the ounce entered the collection of the Hispanic Society of America (HSA). It is the most valuable coin minted in the entire monetary history of the Kingdom of Navarre and its last auction took place in 2012 for 525,000 euros.
