1/4 Real 'Quarto/Quartilla'

Durango's copper quartos were emergency fiduciary issues, authorized by state governments after the Reform War left Mexico's federal minting infrastructure in ruins and small-denomination silver essentially disappeared from commerce. The state of Durango operated with considerable autonomy during this period — first under Liberal, then Conservative, then Liberal control again — and local copper coinage filled a vacuum that Mexico City was in no position to address.

The 1860–1866 window spans the Reform War's aftermath, the French Intervention, and the installation of Maximilian's empire. That a single copper type persisted through such violent administrative upheaval speaks to how desperately ordinary commerce needed fractional currency of any legitimate origin.