1927 10 Pesos Oro (Lead)

In 1926, a U.S.-backed coup was launched in Nicaragua to install a pro-American business regime, just one year after the United States had ended its 13-year occupation of the country as part of the so-called Banana Wars.

A small rebel band of a few hundred fighters under Augusto César Sandino rose against the new government, and by 1927 controlled most of the north. In response, a new occupation was authorized and a force of about 1,000 U.S. Marines was sent to fight the Sandinistas.

During the 1927 campaign Sandino's rebels captured the American-owned San Albino gold mine. Desperate for supplies, instead of paying merchants with the looted gold, Sandino had 10 Peso coins crudely cast from an old lead water pipe taken from the mine. It is rumored that a few pieces were also struck in seized gold, but no example is known.

The lead coins are inscribed R. DE. N. 10 PESOS ORO on the obverse and INDIOS DE A. C. SANDINO on the reverse. Fewer than six or seven survivors are believed to exist, struck from at least two different dies. They are slightly larger than a U.S. quarter, roughly three times as thick, and only barely legible due to the crude casting.

Sandino dictated that the coins were to trade as if they were gold and would inspect villages personally - if his money was not in circulation, he would execute the "offenders." If the U.S. Marines found civilians carrying the lead coins, they too might be killed as suspected rebels.

When the U.S. intervened in 1927, Marine Corps General M. Stanley Newton was sent to command U.S. forces in Nicaragua and acquired two examples of the Sandino Lead 10 Peso. Newton was a close friend of Kenneth Bressett, who received both pieces upon Newton's death in 1967. Since then two more have appeared at auction, and a further two - including this example - have been confirmed.