1725 Portugal King John (Joao) V Gold 8 Escudos (Dobra) NGC VF35 Extremely Rare

SOLD
1725 Portugal King John (Joao) V Gold 8 Escudos (Dobra) NGC VF35 Extremely Rare.

OBVERSE:

Laureate bust right, without mint mark

Lettering: IOANNES V D G PORT ET ALG REX 1725

REVERSE:

Crowned arms in cartouche, ribbons at top sides, flora garland at sides

During the 1500’s to the 1700’s, the great seafaring Catholic nation of Portugal had a global Empire that included possessions in Africa, Asia and South America. At this time, Portugal was one of the world's major economic, political, and cultural powers. Brazil was discovered in the year 1500 by Admiral Pedro Alares Cabral and claimed for Portugal. The Portuguese Empire soon became extremely rich, as they collected more gold from the newly found Brazilian mines over a few decades than Spain took from their possessions in Central and South America in over 400 years. There were also the very productive diamond and precious gemstone mines that kept the royal coffers full.

This gold coin was minted in Lisbon during the reign of John V, who at the age of 17, succeeded his father Peter II in 1707 as the King of Portugal. With this endless supply of money, King John developed Portugal's economy, bought great art collections and built magnificent monuments like the Convent of Mafra.

An extremely rare early date for the imperial gold denomination, which had only first been minted just three years prior. Admittedly, although the 1725 is generally considered equally as challenging as the 1724 (the first collectible year) within this series, we note that an 1725 example was ultimately missing from Sotheby's November 1986 and May 1996 Portuguese sales, while Spink-Taisei's June 1993 Auction 47 of highly important Portuguese coins contained an example of the 1724 date, but not the 1725. Indeed, we have only been able to locate one other example at auction in recent memory--lot 1348 in UBS Gold & Numismatics' January 2010 Auction 84 which brought over 20k+.

As such, we can hardly stress the importance of the present opportunity to Portuguese collectors, many of whom have long sought to fill this hole in their important rarities collection.

Guaranteed Genuine

Selling history one coin at a time.