The eagle countermark applied by insurgent forces during Mexico's War of Independence was a deliberate act of monetary defiance — royalist coinage captured or intercepted was restamped and reissued to fund the rebellion. The "MdS" mark is associated with the forces operating under the authority of the Supreme National American Junta, and the eagle device borrowed directly from pre-colonial Aztec symbolism to assert legitimacy against the colonial crown.
Countermarked 2 Reales from 1811 survive in wildly inconsistent strike quality, as the dies were applied in field conditions rather than a functioning mint. The SCM mark placement varies considerably even within the same issuing period.
The eagle countermark applied by insurgent forces during Mexico's War of Independence was a deliberate act of monetary defiance — royalist coinage captured or intercepted was restamped and reissued to fund the rebellion. The "MdS" mark is associated with the forces operating under the authority of the Supreme National American Junta, and the eagle device borrowed directly from pre-colonial Aztec symbolism to assert legitimacy against the colonial crown.
Countermarked 2 Reales from 1811 survive in wildly inconsistent strike quality, as the dies were applied in field conditions rather than a functioning mint. The SCM mark placement varies considerably even within the same issuing period.