Fernando VI never visited the Americas, and his coinage from New Granada reflects an administration managed almost entirely through viceregal proxy. The Bogotá mint had operated intermittently since 1620, but by the mid-eighteenth century it was producing cob-style gold — macuquinas — struck by hammer rather than screw press, meaning no two pieces share identical shape or centering. This four-escudo denomination sits in an awkward commercial position: too heavy for everyday transaction, too light for major bullion settlement, it circulated primarily in regional colonial trade.
Hernández references 746 and 747 distinguish assayer variations — a detail that can shift collector valuation considerably on an otherwise identical piece.
Fernando VI never visited the Americas, and his coinage from New Granada reflects an administration managed almost entirely through viceregal proxy. The Bogotá mint had operated intermittently since 1620, but by the mid-eighteenth century it was producing cob-style gold — macuquinas — struck by hammer rather than screw press, meaning no two pieces share identical shape or centering. This four-escudo denomination sits in an awkward commercial position: too heavy for everyday transaction, too light for major bullion settlement, it circulated primarily in regional colonial trade.
Hernández references 746 and 747 distinguish assayer variations — a detail that can shift collector valuation considerably on an otherwise identical piece.