1/2 Escudo - Fernando VII Colonial Milled Coinage

Fernando VII never set foot in Peru, and by the time this coin was being struck in Lima, his authority there was disintegrating fast. The independence wars that would end Spanish rule entirely were already well underway — Simón Bolívar and San Martín were closing in — and the Lima mint continued producing royalist coinage almost to the last possible moment. Issues from 1820 and 1821 are notably scarcer than earlier dates in the run, a direct consequence of disrupted supply lines and the political chaos preceding independence in July 1821.