1/8 Real 'Octavo'

Durango's copper fractional coinage of the 1820s emerged from a chronic shortage of small-denomination specie that plagued northern Mexico almost immediately after independence. The federal government lacked the infrastructure to supply copper coinage uniformly across distant states, so Durango — like several other states — took matters into its own hands. These octavos circulated primarily among the laboring poor, who had little use for silver but needed fractional change for daily transactions.

KM#321 is one of several distinct Durango copper types from this decade, produced under inconsistently maintained equipment at a mint that was itself a relatively recent colonial inheritance.