2 Reales - Fernando VII

Fernando VII's long reign produced one of the most administratively chaotic minting periods in Spanish colonial history. From 1808 onward, the Napoleonic occupation of Spain fractured the mint system entirely — peninsular production collapsed while colonial mints in Mexico, Lima, and Potosí carried the monetary weight of an empire fighting a war of independence on two fronts simultaneously. Many issues of this type were struck not in Spain proper but in emergency facilities, with assayer marks shifting as personnel changed under wartime conditions.

Fernando himself was a prisoner of Napoleon at Valençay from 1808 to 1814, meaning coins struck in his name for the first six years of this date range were produced by a regency government in his absence.