4 Reales - Carlos I

These are macuquina — cob coinage — struck by hand at the Mexico City Mint, the first mint established in the Americas, which opened in 1535 under royal license from Carlos I. The assayer responsible for each piece struck his initial alongside the mint mark, creating legal accountability for silver fineness at a time when the Crown was acutely suspicious of colonial mint officials skimming metal. Several early Mexico City assayers were in fact prosecuted for exactly that.

The 4 reales denomination saw relatively limited production compared to the 2 and 8 reales in these early decades. Surviving examples from the 1542–1555 window almost invariably show the crude, irregular planchet preparation inherent to the cob method.