I was fascinated by the piece on Sandino's lead 10 Pesos coin submitted by Dennis Tucker from Ken Bresset's book Milestone Coins.

I have never seen the unique piece illustrated in The E-Sylum (Vol. 14 #1) nor even heard about it prior to this article. I have heard that shortly after the revolution of 1979 some unscrupulous Sandinistas "manufactured" replicas of the rare Sandino piece in lead in response to demand for more rare coins after a few (not Sandino pieces) had been looted from the collection of Banco Central.

I have never seen one of these modern fabrications, and was wondering if Mr. Bressett could tell us a little about the provenance of the interesting and supposedly unique piece he illustrates. For reference, attached is an illustration of a genuine piece (made by Sandino in August 1927) said to have been brought back to the United States in the 1930's in the hands of one of the U.S. Marines who had just served a tour of duty there.

The earliest notice of these pieces can be found on page 100 of the February 1928 issue of The Numismatist, and an interesting write-up on these pieces can be found on page 52 of the April 1964 Whitman Numismatic Journal, which account closely parallels the fascinating historical background presented by Mr. Bressett.

Ken Bressett writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:AGUSTO C�SAR SANDINO OF NICARAGUA, ALCHEMIST(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v14n01a10.html)