1/4 Real 'Quarto/Quartilla'

Chihuahua's copper fractional coinage of the 1850s emerged from a chronic shortage of small change that plagued northern Mexico throughout the early republican period. The federal government in Mexico City had neither the infrastructure nor the political will to adequately supply copper coinage to the distant northern states, leaving Chihuahua to authorize its own emergency issues. This quartilla was one of the results.

KM#343 is known with die alignment variations, and genuine examples are frequently encountered alongside contemporary counterfeits — the originals themselves being of modest production quality, which complicates attribution in worn condition.