2 Reales JML - Insurgent countermarked coinage

During Mexico's War of Independence, insurgent forces operating under leaders like Morelos controlled territory but lacked the infrastructure to mint coins from scratch. Their solution was brutal in its simplicity: capture existing royalist silver, apply a countermark, and re-issue it as revolutionary currency. The JML mark is attributed to José María Liceaga, one of the insurgent commanders operating in the Guanajuato region, who authorized these overstruck pieces to pay troops and supply chains outside crown control.

The host coins beneath the countermark range widely — colonial 2 Reales from multiple mints and multiple decades, whatever circulating silver was at hand.