4 Reales Rafael Carrera

Rafael Carrera, the illiterate mestizo general who ruled Guatemala for the better part of three decades, died in office in April 1865 — yet coins bearing his name continued to be struck for years afterward under his successor Vicente Cerna, who maintained the Carrera-era monetary types rather than immediately issuing his own. This issue falls squarely within that transitional period, when Cerna's government was consolidating power against liberal opposition and had little political incentive to spend resources redesigning the coinage.

Guatemala's mint at Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción was notoriously inconsistent during this period, and the .903 fineness specified was not always reliably achieved in practice.