1 Quarto - Carlos III

These were struck in Manila under royal decree as the Philippines' first officially sanctioned copper coinage, intended to displace the crude cob-style macuquina silver that had long dominated small transactions. The Spanish crown had repeatedly attempted to introduce proper copper currency into its Pacific colonies throughout the eighteenth century, with earlier efforts collapsing due to counterfeiting and local resistance to token-value coins.

The Manila mint operated intermittently and under chronic material shortages, which accounts for the wide variation in planchet quality across the type's twelve-year production window.