8 Reales - Fernando VI

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.