1⁄16 Real 'Medio Octavo'

Jalisco issued this fractional copper in 1861 under the authority granted to Mexican states during the chronic small-change shortages of the mid-nineteenth century. Federal silver fractions had long failed to penetrate rural and working-class commerce in sufficient quantities, pushing several states to authorize their own copper minors. Jalisco's issues from this period are among the more systematically struck of the state coppers, produced at Guadalajara, but surviving examples in problem-free condition are genuinely scarce — copper coinage circulated hard in western Mexico and was rarely saved.