1 Real - Carlos IV

Carlos IV inherited the Spanish throne in December 1788, the same year this series began — and his reign unraveled badly. The French Revolutionary Wars, the brief and humiliating Peace of Basel in 1795, and ultimately Napoleon's forced abdications at Bayonne in 1808 compressed two decades of imperial decline into a single coin type. Colonial mints in Mexico City, Lima, Potosí, and Santiago struck their own versions simultaneously, each with distinct assayer marks, making this a type that spans an entire hemisphere in production geography.

The Madrid mint's output dropped sharply after 1805 as silver shipments from the Americas grew increasingly disrupted by British naval dominance following Trafalgar.