Catalog
8 Reales - Fernando VI
| Issuer | Casa de Moneda de Guatemala |
|---|---|
| Year | 1747-1753 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered (cob) |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse bears the Pillar dollar (columnario) design, depicting two crowned hemispheres of the Old and New Worlds set between the crowned Pillars of Hercules, each pillar bearing a banner inscribed with the motto PLUS VLTRA. A partial circumferential Latin legend surrounds the composition, with the date and assayer's initial (J) appearing in the lower field. The legend reads VTRAQUE VNUM, referencing the union of the Spanish realms. As is typical of macuquina coinage, the irregular flan results in much of the peripheral detail being weakly struck or absent, with only portions of the design fully realized on any given specimen. |
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| Mint | Casa de Moneda de Guatemala, Santiago de Guatemala |
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| Additional information |
Guatemala's cob coinage — macuquinas — was produced under a system of subcontracted assayers who bore personal financial liability for silver content shortfalls. The assayer's mark on each piece was not decorative; it identified the man legally responsible for the coin's fineness. During Fernando VI's reign, the Guatemala mint was under pressure from Madrid to transition to milled coinage, a shift that would eventually happen in 1733 in Mexico City but took decades longer to reach the colonial periphery.
KM#12 spans the full reign of Fernando VI, who died in 1759 after a period of severe mental incapacitation following the death of his wife Barbara de Braganza in 1758.