2 Escudos - Felipe V

The 1732 date marks a turning point in New World coinage: that year, the Mexico City Mint introduced the first machine-struck gold coins in the Americas, ending decades of the crude hand-struck "cob" (macuquina) coinage that had dominated colonial circulation. These milled issues — called columnarios for their design — were specifically intended to restore confidence in Spanish colonial gold after chronic complaints from European merchants about the irregularity and suspected short-weight of cob coinage.

Felipe V ordered the modernization partly in response to a 1728 monetary reform tightening crown oversight of New World mints.