1/2 Escudo

Peru's early republican gold coinage was struck at Lima and, critically, at Cuzco — two mints with meaningfully different output quality and consistency. The Cuzco facility, operating under more constrained conditions, produced coins with irregular planchet preparation throughout this period, and pieces attributable to that mint frequently show surface irregularities unrelated to circulation. KM#146 spans three decades precisely because the fractional gold denominations remained politically useful during Peru's chronic fiscal instability, including the turbulent years surrounding the Peru-Bolivian Confederation's collapse in 1839.