1982 1 ONZA Libertad MS65 DOUBLED DIE REVERSE #1

1982 1 ONZA PLATA PURA

First Year of the Libertad.

-First Libertad Rare Variety-

The 1982 Mexico Silver Onza Libertad belongs to the first type of Mexico's flagship silver bullion series, struck at the Casa de Moneda de México with a reported mintage of 1,049,680 pieces for the date. The obverse carries the coat of arms of Mexico, the golden eagle on a prickly-pear cactus devouring a serpent, encircled by ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS; the reverse shows Winged Victory — the Ángel de la Independencia — in front-facing relief, holding a laurel crown in her right hand and a broken chain in her left, before the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, a design adapted from Mexico's 1921 gold Centenario. Struck in 99.9% fine silver, the coin weighs 31.1 grams, measures 36 mm and contains one troy ounce of silver, with INDEPENDENCIA Y LIBERTAD lettered on the edge. The 36 mm type ran from 1982 to 1995, thicker than the 40 mm coin that replaced it and known to collectors as the gordita. This example is the Doubled Die Obverse, on which the obverse design shows clear doubling from a misaligned hubbing; it is catalogued as KM-494.1 and has no separate mintage, since the doubled dies were used within the year's total production and the number struck from them is unrecorded.

A dramatic doubled die on the first year of Mexico's flagship bullion series is exactly the combination variety specialists look for, and this piece is pursued by Libertad collectors, Mexican variety specialists and Registry Set participants together. Because the variety was not recognised at the time and the coins circulated into bullion channels, examples are found irregularly and mostly in ordinary bullion condition; a well-preserved piece showing the doubling clearly is much harder to find than the date itself.