4 Maravedis - Carlos I

The 4 maravedis copper coinage of New Spain was authorized under a 1542 royal decree — the same order that established the first official mint in the Americas at Mexico City. Carlos I needed small-denomination coinage to facilitate petty trade in the colonies, where silver reales were far too valuable for everyday transactions among the indigenous population and lower economic strata. The experiment largely failed; colonists distrusted copper, and much of the issue circulated poorly before the series was quietly abandoned by mid-century.

Struck on irregular flans with crude screw presses, these pieces are notorious for off-center strikes and weak areas. Not a generic observation — it is structural to how every known example presents.