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4 Escudos - Carlos II
| Issuer | Viceroyalty of Peru (Spanish Colonial) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1696-1701 |
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| Composition | Gold (.917) |
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| Obverse description | Quartered shield bearing the castles of Castile and the lions of León arranged in alternating quadrants, all divided by a bold cross potent. The design is struck in the cob (macuquina) style, resulting in an irregular flan with partial legends and a characteristically crude yet bold relief. Pellet borders partially visible around the perimeter. The heraldic devices are rendered in the standard Spanish colonial style consistent with the reign of Carlos II. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Carlos II, the last Habsburg king of Spain, ruled in a state of near-total incapacity — epileptic, mentally impaired, and without an heir — while his court fractured into competing French and Austrian factions fighting over the succession. These Lima-struck cob-style pieces were produced in the final years of his reign, which ended with his death in November 1700. His will, signed under intense pressure from the pro-French faction, named Philip of Anjou as successor, triggering the War of the Spanish Succession almost immediately.
The Lima mint during this period carried a persistent reputation for assayer fraud and underweight strikes, with several officials prosecuted in the late seventeenth century for skimming gold from the planchets.