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4 Escudos - Carlos IV
| Issuer | Casa de Moneda de México (Mexican Mint) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1792-1808 |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Obverse description | Armored and draped bust of King Carlos IV facing right, rendered in the neoclassical style after the effigy by Jerónimo Antonio Gil. The portrait features the king with powdered hair tied in a queue, wearing a lace jabot and armored cuirass with decorative detail at the shoulder. The circular legend reads CAROL•IIII•D•G•HISP•ET IND•R•, and the mint date appears in the lower exergual area of the field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The quartered royal arms of Spain — featuring the castles of Castile, lions of León, the fleur-de-lis of Bourbon, and the pomegranate of Granada — displayed on a crowned shield at center. The denomination numeral '4' appears to the left of the shield and the assayer's initial 'S' (or relevant assayer letter) to the right. The shield is encircled by the collar and links of the Order of the Golden Fleece, with the mint mark 'Mo' and assayer initials 'TH' positioned at the base. The surrounding legend IN•UTROQ•FELIX•AUSPICE•DEO runs around the periphery. |
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| Additional information |
Carlos IV inherited the Spanish throne in 1788, and the Mexican mint's production of his gold coinage spans nearly his entire reign — ending only when Napoleon forced his abdication in favor of Joseph Bonaparte in 1808. That political rupture severed the colonial minting system almost overnight. The 4 escudos denomination was the workhorse of high-value colonial trade, moving between merchants and treasury accounts rather than ordinary hands, which partly explains why circulated examples outnumber uncirculated survivors so decisively.
The Mexico City mint used assayers whose initials appear on each piece, and attribution to specific assayer pairs matters considerably for completeness collectors. The FM and TH assayer combinations bookend the series.