NEW BOOK: SIEGE COINS IN LATIN AMERICA

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V25 2022 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 25, Number 50, December 18, 2022, Article 3

Siege Coins for Latin America book cover

A book on Siege Coins in Latin America has just been published by the Union Americana de Numismática (UNAN), an association of more than 650 individuals residing in the American Continent and Europe and whose common interest is the free exchange of numismatic information.

The new book focuses on a little-known subject: coins minted during the siege or blockade of a city or port, to pay salaries for the defending armies. By extension, coins minted by that attacking forces to pay salaries of their armies. To produce such coins – whose fineness do not necessarily conform to prevailing legal standards – these enemy forces have resorted to utilize metals taken from jewels of the Church or metals of lower quality available locally. The original intent was to issue such coins over a limited time period, after which these siege pieces would be collected and demonetized.

This bilingual – Spanish and English – book is the result of a 5-year research undertaken by several individual numismatists residing in the countries where the siege coins were minted, and has been put together by UNAN. It constitutes the first such collective undertaking made by this association, and is presently available, free-of-charge, in electronic form only. To obtain a copy, interested parties should send an email to my electronic address (rjovel@jovel.org) or to the email address of Pedro Cano (pietroyanaky@telefonica.net).

It is of interest that a book titled Siege Coins of the World was recently published, after UNAN's research was already underway, and that for the Latin American continent it listed only one case of siege money. Our new book identifies and describes more than two dozen such cases that occurred in Latin America during Colonial times, the Independency wars and in the Republican period.

The new book was just launched during the recent Central American Numismatic Congress, held in San Jose, Costa Rica, from 1 to 3 December, 2022.

"Most of the Latin American coins that I excluded were coins issued during sieges as emergency or necessity money intended for general circulation due to "transitions of sovereignty and monetary shortages," Perhaps I split hairs in Siege Coins of the World 1453-1902, but my focus (with rare exception) was on coins issued specifically to pay the besieging or defending soldiers. Thus, while there are numerous instances where emergency or necessity money was produced during sieges, not all of those issues were created specifically to pay the troops. I placed most of the Latin American issues in this category. I am eager to add Siege Coins in Latin America to my library along with my copies of Medina and Jaros/Luedeking, and I am open to any additions or corrections that their research offers on the subject. I am the first to admit that Siege Coins of the World 1453-1902 has its limitations."