1/2 Real - Fernando VI arms

The Lima half real of Fernando VI's reign was struck under the old macuquina (cob) tradition at a mint that had been operating since 1568, making it one of the longest-continuously-running mints in the Americas. By the 1750s, Lima was already transitioning pressure toward the new milled coinage technology, and these cob-struck pieces represent the tail end of a production method that colonial administrators had been trying to phase out for decades — partly because the irregular flans made weight fraud endemic and nearly impossible to prosecute.

Fernando VI never visited the Americas. His name appeared on coinage across a hemisphere he knew only through treasury reports.