8 Reales - Felipe II

Lima's earliest cob coinage was struck under the most chaotic minting conditions in the hemisphere. The assayers of this period — Alonso Rincón being the dominant figure in the late 1560s — worked without the standardized machinery that would later define colonial minting, producing coins cut and hammered from crudely rolled silver planchets. Weight accuracy was the only real legal requirement; shape was incidental.

Felipe II's 1566 ordinances nominally governed production, but enforcement at Lima lagged years behind Mexico City. Pieces from this narrow window predate the assayer accountability reforms that followed the 1572 viceroy Toledo inspection, which overhauled the entire operation.