1/4 Real 'Quarto/Quartilla'

San Luis Potosí issued copper fractional coinage during the 1860s largely out of necessity — silver, the region's defining commodity thanks to its storied mines, was being consumed by the financial demands of the Reform War's aftermath and the ongoing resistance against Maximilian's imperial government. Small copper pieces filled the vacuum left by hoarded silver in everyday commerce. This particular 1867 issue falls in the final year of Maximilian's empire, which collapsed when he was executed by firing squad at Querétaro in June of that year.

KM#362 is specific to San Luis Potosí state authority, not federal issue — a distinction that mattered politically in a republic reasserting itself province by province.