Catalog
2 Reales - Felipe V
| Issuer | Casa de Moneda de México |
|---|---|
| Year | 1715 |
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| Value | 2 Reales |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central field displays the crowned Royal Arms of Spain — a quartered shield bearing the castles of Castile and lions of León, with the fleur-de-lis of the Bourbon dynasty and the pomegranate of Granada in base — surmounted by a royal crown. The mint mark (Mo) and assayer initial (J) appear to the left of the shield, with the denomination numeral (2) to the right. The date 1715 is incorporated into the encircling Latin legend, which reads PHILIPPVS V DEI G, separated by pellet stops, all contained within a beaded border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | PHILIPVS V DEI G (Translation: Felipe 5th by the grace of God) |
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| Additional information |
This coin was almost certainly among the thousands lost when the 1715 Plate Fleet — eleven Spanish ships carrying colonial silver northward through the Florida Straits — was destroyed by a hurricane in July of that year. Recovery operations began almost immediately and have continued intermittently for three centuries, making fleet-salvage examples with contemporary documentation among the most historically traceable pieces in Mexican colonial numismatics.
Felipe V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, inherited the throne following the extinction of the Habsburg line and a thirteen-year war over the succession. Mexican cob coinage of his reign shows little of the administrative reform that would later produce the milled series — the macuquina fabric remained essentially unchanged from Habsburg practice.