1492-1992 Mexican (Columbus discovery) silver medal

N#441936 

155.57g

Rarity index: 97

Anyone know anything about this medal? Just purchased in Cozumel and cant find another example anywhere.. What does a rarity index that high mean? What's the mintage numbers and approximate value?

The Mexican shop owner in broken English assured me it was super rare lol..

Paid $210 for it.

Thanks

Hello 🤖

Without pictures, it will be very difficult for anyone to help you. Could you please post clear pictures of each side of your item?

Please note that this is an automatic message. Feel free to ignore if it is not relevant.

Here you will find your question answered about the Rarity Index;

https://en.numista.com/help/index.php

Basically the NRI is a number derived from the number of members that have that coin/medal/token/paper object in their collection.  The higher the number the fewer the members that have one.  So a high number means different things. 

1) The object is rare, hard to find, very valuable and few people own it for those reasons. Many people want it.

2) The object is a piece of crap, a trinket nobody wants and is in the Numista Catalog because one person wanted to create a page with their pictured object.

3) Something in between 1) and 2).

Yours with an NRI of 95 being silver falls under 3).

rsirian1

Basically the NRI is a number derived from the number of members that have that coin/medal/token/paper object in their collection.  The higher the number the fewer the members that have one.  So a high number means different things. 

1) The object is rare, hard to find, very valuable and few people own it for those reasons. Many people want it.

2) The object is a piece of crap, a trinket nobody wants and is in the Numista Catalog because one person wanted to create a page with their pictured object.

3) Something in between 1) and 2).

 

Yours with an NRI of 95 being silver falls under 3).

Maybe closer to 2, as the OP wants to swap it and it is the only thing on the swap list.

You may be right. I was thinking more about the melt value of 155 grams of silver at some (unknown) fineness.  

Edit: I found this picture of the edge of a token that looks like this one. 

Does yours weigh 155 grams and have this on the edge? If so then it's .999 silver with melt value of US $212 today.

Yes, it has PLATA999 on the rim, but isn't a 5 oz medal, it's a 1.5 oz medal..

Here's one for $3,500. Don't know if it will sell.  https://www.mercadolibre.com.mx/medalla-plata-l999-50grs-500-anos-descubrim-america-ano-1992/up/MLMU1009292994

Here's one for €50.00. Don't know the size or if is even silver.  https://www.numisaisne.fr/en/medals-and-tokens/23713-mexico-medal-500-years-of-the-discovery-of-the-americas-1492-1992.html

Here's one that may have sold on Facebook for $1,500.

And yours sold for $210.  

Cool thanks for the info! The eBay auction gives me at least some insight as to its value. I didn't have a clue and searched everywhere..

Your search powers are greater than mine lol.

I guess the $210 price tag wasn't so bad after all. I was sure the little Cozumel shopkeeper was taking me for a ride..

As a side note, of the few I have found.. some of them are blank on the bottom reverse, and others like mine have “Bancomer”.

Bancomer I think is a bank in Mexico that (used to) mint and sell Mexican silver coinage.

I'm not sure if the blank ones are the originals, or the Bancomer ones, or if it even matters.

Some a**hat scrubbed a little abrasion onto the reverse above the pyramid, so NGC will label it “cleaned”, but I'm going to send it in to be graded anyway.