8 Escudos - Carlos IV

Carlos IV ascended the Spanish throne in December 1788, and the Guatemala mint's obligation to update the coinage was immediate. The 1789–1790 dating on this type captures precisely that transitional window — dies bearing the effigy of the new king had to be prepared and put into production while the previous Carlos III dies were retired. Guatemala City's Casa de Moneda was one of the more distant mints in the colonial system, and the lag in receiving updated royal portraits and die equipment from Spain occasionally produced hybrid or mule emissions during such transitions.

KM#49 represents a single-year type in all practical terms — the 1791 coinage shifted to revised specifications.