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1/2 Real - Ferdinand VI
| Issuer | Casa de Moneda de Potosí |
|---|---|
| Year | 1747-1760 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.6917 g |
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| Obverse description | Cob (macuquina) type strike of characteristic irregular flan. The central device displays a bold Greek cross with flared arms, dividing the field into four quadrants each containing the alternating castles and lions of the royal arms of Castile and León. The design is rendered in the rough, hand-struck manner typical of Potosí cob coinage, with partial legend visible at the periphery where the irregular flan permits. A post-mint piercing is present at the upper portion of the coin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Potosí's cob coinage — the macuquina tradition — was already an anachronism by the time Ferdinand VI came to the throne in 1746. Madrid had been pushing its American mints toward milled coinage for decades, and Potosí's assayers knew their days of hand-cut planchets were numbered. The half real from this transitional window was struck under conditions that were administratively messy: the mint had been rocked by the 1649 fraud scandal barely a century prior, and internal oversight remained a political instrument rather than a technical one.
Production ended at Potosí for the macuquina type well before Ferdinand's death in 1759, as the milled pillar coinage had already taken over by mid-decade.