4 Escudos - Charles II Segovia; without Portugal arms

Charles II, the last Habsburg king of Spain, ruled under severe physical and cognitive limitations — the product of generations of dynastic inbreeding — and his reign saw the Spanish monetary system increasingly strained by bullion shortages and debasement pressures on lesser denominations. The gold coinage, however, maintained its fineness. The absence of the Portuguese arms on this piece reflects the political reality after 1668, when Spain formally recognized Portuguese independence under the Treaty of Lisbon, ending a six-decade dynastic union and removing any claim worth emblazoning on the coinage.

Segovia's water-powered mill mint, the Real Ingenio, was among the most technically advanced in Europe at the time, producing rounder, more uniform flans than hand-struck Spanish gold of earlier periods.