8 Reales - Philip IV

The Potosí mint in 1649 was operating under the shadow of one of colonial Spanish America's most damaging fraud scandals. From roughly 1634 onward, mint officials — including the assayer Francisco Gómez de la Rocha — had been systematically debasing the silver content of cob coinage well below the mandated fineness. The fraud was exposed in 1649, triggering mass arrests, executions, and a complete reorganization of the mint. Coins struck in that transitional year carry an uncertain pedigree: some predate the purge, some follow it.

The KM#R19b designation flags this as a restrike, a distinction worth scrutinizing carefully against the assayer mark.