8 Reales - Fernando VII 2nd portrait

The second portrait type for Fernando VII emerged after his restoration in 1814, replacing the earlier "imaginary" portrait — struck while he was imprisoned at Valençay — with a likeness based on actual sittings. The shift was politically loaded: the first portrait had been designed without the king ever having posed, and several mints produced noticeably inconsistent renditions throughout the Napoleonic occupation years.

Struck across multiple New World mints as well as Madrid, this type spans the final decade of Spanish colonial coinage in the Americas, with Mexico City, Lima, and Potosí all producing pieces before independence severed those operations entirely.