Valdivia's 1822 siege coinage was struck under genuinely desperate circumstances — the city had been cut off by patriot forces during Chile's war of independence, and the royalist garrison needed coin to function. The billon alloy reflects not a monetary policy but a scarcity of silver; whatever metal was available went into the dies.
KM#2 is among the rarer of the Valdivia obsidional issues. The city capitulated to Lord Cochrane's forces in January 1820, which creates an attribution problem: some scholars dispute the precise dating of these emergency pieces, and 1822 may reflect restrike or administrative lag rather than the actual year of manufacture.
Valdivia's 1822 siege coinage was struck under genuinely desperate circumstances — the city had been cut off by patriot forces during Chile's war of independence, and the royalist garrison needed coin to function. The billon alloy reflects not a monetary policy but a scarcity of silver; whatever metal was available went into the dies.
KM#2 is among the rarer of the Valdivia obsidional issues. The city capitulated to Lord Cochrane's forces in January 1820, which creates an attribution problem: some scholars dispute the precise dating of these emergency pieces, and 1822 may reflect restrike or administrative lag rather than the actual year of manufacture.