Bright satiny luster covers medium yellow gold surfaces. Choice and very attractive for the grade. A little soft on the right side of the shield and the back of the portrait, otherwise well struck. The obverse die is the same as was used on the previous specimen. This is the single highest graded Popayán 8 Escudos with the Pn mintmark seen by PCGS, and one of only two assigned a Mint State grade (the other is an MS-60 1816-Pn). Perhaps the finest known of this very rare variety, far finer than the example illustrated in the Calicó Onza book, where it was termed "only a few specimens known." This was a $10,000 coin more than 35 years ago. From the Eldorado Collection of Colombian and Ecuadorian Coins.<p>From RARCOAs 1981 CICF sale, March 1981, lot 200.
