Peruvian silver cobs

The Lima mint, as far as cobs are concerned, was sporadic, and as a result we do not see as many cobs from this mint as from Mexico or Potosí. In the beginning Lima made pillars-type "pre-cobs" like the Mexican Charles-Joanna coins, but that ended after only a couple years. Then in 1577 a shield-type design was mass-produced by assayer Diego de la Torre, whose design work was exemplary, making these shield-type cobs some of the most highly sought of all cob issues. By 1589 de la Torre's work was done and it was not till 1659 that the Viceroy of Peru ended his mint's hiatus (but without royal authorization) with a brief "Star of Lima" issue of unique design. Finally in 1684 the Lima mint reopened for good and imitated the pillars-and-waves issues of Potosí until the new machine-made "pillar dollars" were mandated there in 1752.