Catalog
2 Reales - Charles III
| Issuer | Casa de Moneda de Potosí |
|---|---|
| Year | 1759-1773 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Varies |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Central quartered cross potent, boldly struck, dividing the field into four quarters each containing alternating castles and lions of the royal arms of Castile and León. The denomination numeral '2' is clearly visible in the upper-left quadrant above the horizontal arm of the cross, with the assayer initials 'V' and the date '1768' appearing within the quadrants of the cross. The mint mark 'P' for Potosí is partially visible. The coin's irregular cob flan results in portions of the surrounding decorative border and legend being off-flan, a characteristic feature of macuquina coinage of this period. |
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| Additional information |
Charles III inherited the Spanish throne in 1759 and almost immediately pushed through the Pragmatic of 1771, which mandated the transition from cob-style macuquina coinage to milled portrait coinage across all American mints. Potosí, sitting at over 4,000 meters in the Bolivian altiplano, was among the last mints to complete the switch — the dies, equipment, and trained personnel required for milled coinage were not easily transported to one of the most remote industrial operations in the colonial world.
KM#43 spans the cusp of that transition. Pieces struck in the early 1770s may show inconsistencies in planchet preparation as the mint adjusted to new standards before the macuquina type was formally retired.