Arce's Doubloons: A Die Study of the Colombian Gold Cob Coinage of Assayer Arce in the name of Charles II, 1692-1714

This landmark work examines hundreds of examples to chronologically sequence the dies used to make 2 escudos gold coins ("doubloons") at the Bogotá mint in 1692-1714, during the tenure of assayer Buenaventura de Arce Penagos, all in the name of Charles II of Spain, whose death in 1700 marked the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession and an increase in Caribbean piracy.

The majority of these hand-struck coins were recovered by divers in our time from the wrecks of the Spanish 1715 Fleet off the east coast of Florida, and many of the recovered coins now reside in the State of Florida Collection, which the author studied extensively for this project.

This work reveals several heretofore unknown aspects about these coins, including muling with 1 escudo dies, transpositions and retrograde characters, and even a secret debasement.

After a lengthy introduction, the coins are presented in three chapters representing distinct periods: Lifetime issues (1692-1699), Transitional issues (1700-1704), and Post-Transitional issues (1703-1714) (The overlap of the last two considered Half-Transitionals 1703-1704). Each chapter shows diagrams of the obverse (shield) die designs and key aspects of the reverse (cross) die designs, with summaries and photos of all the known die combinations. Two appendices do the same for Philip V Arce 2 escudos 1718-1722 and all Arce 1 escudos 1692-1722.