4 Escudos - Carlos IV

Carlos IV's accession coinage from Guatemala represents the first year of his reign — 1789 was also the year the Spanish crown was watching the French Revolution ignite across the Pyrenees, a crisis that would ultimately consume the monarchy his son Fernando VII inherited. The Casa de Moneda de Guatemala, established in 1731, was one of the few New World mints authorized to strike gold escudos, and the Guatemala City facility served the entire Central American region.

KM#48 is the accession type; the portrait style shifted with subsequent issues as the mint updated its working dies.