Catalog
1/2 Real - Ferdinand VI
| Issuer | Casa de Moneda de Potosí |
|---|---|
| Year | 1747-1760 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1/2 Real |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Cob (macuquina) reverse of irregular flan, displaying the crowned monogram of Ferdinand VI rendered in the characteristic bold, heavily struck style of mid-18th century Potosí cob coinage. The crowned 'F' and 'D' monogram dominates the field, accompanied by partial visible elements of the surrounding legend and the assayer's initial 'PQ' where the flan permits. The strike is off-center in typical cob fashion, with much of the peripheral legend lost to the irregular planchet edge. A post-mint piercing is visible at the lower left. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | FERDND VI D G |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
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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.