1 Escudo - Fernando VII

Fernando VII never set foot in Guatemala, yet the colonial mint at Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción struck gold in his name throughout the years he spent first as Napoleon's prisoner at Valençay and then as an increasingly despotic ruler back in Madrid. The 1817 date places this piece squarely in the post-restoration period, after his return to Spain in 1814 and his immediate abolition of the liberal Constitution of Cádiz.

The Guatemala mint was one of only a handful in Spanish America still operating with any consistency at this point — insurgencies had crippled production elsewhere. KM#74 is the standard issue of this type, struck on the 22-karat standard the Spanish crown had maintained in its American mints for generations.