Catalog
2 Reales - Felipe IV Provisional countermarked coinage
| Issuer | Captaincy General of Guatemala |
|---|---|
| Year | 1663 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Irregular |
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| Additional information |
In 1663, the Captaincy General of Guatemala authorized a countermark program in direct response to the macuquina fraud crisis sweeping Spanish colonial mints. Assayers at Mexico City and Potosí had been filing silver from cob coinage before it entered circulation — a scandal that reached the crown and triggered emergency remediation orders across the empire. Guatemala's solution was to countermark existing 2 reales pieces as a guarantee of locally verified weight and fineness, effectively re-certifying coinage that had already been questioned.
KM#A1 is among the earliest attributed Guatemalan countermark types, making verified examples genuinely scarce.