Catalog
2 Reales - Philip V
| Issuer | Casa de Moneda de Potosí |
|---|---|
| Year | 1701-1728 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Typical macuquina (cob) style obverse displaying the crowned royal arms of Castile and León, with the quartered shield showing castles and lions alternating in the four quadrants. The design is characteristic of the irregular hammered cob coinage of the Potosí mint, with a partial border of pellets or beading visible where the flan edge permits. The overall strike is characteristic of the period, with the design only partially visible due to the irregular shape of the planchet. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | 1701 PY - - 1702 PY - - 1703 PY - - 1704 PY - - 1705 PY - - 1706 PY - - 1707 PY - - 1708 PY - - 1710 PY - - 1711 PY - - 1712 PY - - 1713 PY - - 1714 PY - - 1715 PY - - 1716 PY - - 1717 PY - - 1718 PY - - 1719 PY - - 1720 PY - - 1721 PY - - 1722 PM - - 1722 PY - - 1723 PY - - 1724 PY - - 1725 PY - - 1726 PY - - 1727 PY - - 1728 PM - - |
| Additional information |
Philip V inherited the Spanish throne in 1700 as the first Bourbon king, triggering the War of the Spanish Succession and nearly two decades of financial strain that made the colonial mints in the Americas more critical than ever to the Crown's solvency. Potosí's output during this period underwrote the war effort almost directly. The cob-style planchets struck here were notoriously irregular — a deliberate consequence of assay requirements prioritizing weight and fineness over shape, meaning no two pieces are geometrically alike.
KM#29 spans a stretch when Potosí was under chronic pressure to produce volume, and assayer fraud was a documented problem: the 1705 scandal involving assayer Ramos implicated multiple mint officials and led to executions.