100 Euros 8 Escudos of Felipe IV

This piece belongs to Spain's long-running "Joyas Numismáticas" program, which reproduces historic coinage types in modern precious metal strikes. The 8 escudos prototype it references — the so-called "doubloon" — was the dominant trade coin of the Spanish empire through much of the 17th century, moving silver and gold from American mines through Seville and into the arteries of global commerce. Felipe IV's reign saw the escudo system under sustained pressure as repeated debasements of the vellon copper coinage destabilized Castilian monetary policy throughout the 1630s and 1640s.

The original 8 escudos were struck at mints including Segovia, Seville, and colonial houses in Mexico and Potosí.