2 Reales - Charles II

Charles II was the last Habsburg king of Spain, and the cob coinage struck at Potosí under his reign suffered from the same chronic quality problems that had plagued the mint since the great fraud scandal of 1649, when assayers were found to be systematically debasing silver and falsifying fineness records. Royal inspectors were dispatched repeatedly, but enforcement at over 4,000 meters elevation was difficult. These macuquinas were hand-hammered on irregular planchets and rarely struck cleanly — not a weakness of individual pieces but a structural feature of the entire series.

Charles died in 1700 without an heir, triggering the War of the Spanish Succession and ending Habsburg control of the mint entirely.