8 Escudos

Mexico's 8 escudos survived the transition from colonial rule almost entirely intact as a monetary instrument — the young republic initially had neither the administrative capacity nor the political will to redesign its coinage from scratch. What changed was the eagle, not the architecture of the coin's monetary function.

Production was distributed across multiple assay offices — Mexico City, Culiacán, Durango, Guanajuato, Hermosillo, Oaxaca, and others — each with distinct assayer initials that today drive significant price differentials among specialists. The Culiacán and Hermosillo issues from the 1860s are notably scarce by mintage.