8 Reales - Fernando VII imaginary bust

Chile's first silver coinage struck under Fernando VII used an imaginary bust — a portrait invented by local engravers who had never seen the new king and had no approved effigy to work from. The Spanish crown's communication with its colonial mints had been severed almost immediately by Napoleon's invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1808 and Fernando's subsequent captivity at Valençay. Santiago simply improvised.

The type was replaced quickly once official portrait dies arrived, making the 1808–1809 window narrow. The imaginary bust issues are consistently scarcer than the later corrected portrait coinage.