400 Euro 8 Escudos 1770 Guatemala

This piece is a modern restrike — or more precisely, a commemorative reproduction — issued by the Casa de la Moneda de España honoring the colonial-era 8 escudos struck at the Santiago de Guatemala mint, one of the shorter-lived mints in the Spanish imperial system. The original 1770 Guatemala City issues were produced under the assayer-supervised milled coinage system introduced decades earlier to standardize colonial gold output, at a mint that would be devastated and ultimately relocated following the catastrophic Santa Marta earthquakes of 1773.

The Guatemala mint never achieved the output volumes of Mexico City or Lima. Three years after this coin's prototype was struck, the city ceased to function as a colonial capital.