2 Escudos - Fernando VII bust of Carlos III

Struck in Santiago under the last gasp of Spanish colonial authority, this issue appeared just as Chile's first national junta — formed September 18, 1810 — was quietly consolidating power while nominally maintaining loyalty to the captive Fernando VII. The mint continued producing coinage in his name precisely because declaring otherwise would have accelerated a Spanish military response.

The obverse portrait is borrowed from Carlos III dies, a common colonial expedient when updated punches were slow to arrive from Spain. Santiago was still using inherited tooling when the political ground had already shifted beneath it.