8 Reales Type II Counter-mark

Guatemala's post-independence monetary system was a patchwork of colonial-era Spanish milled dollars pressed back into service through official countermarking. The Type II punch — applied from 1839 onward — was the government's response to the failure of its own domestic coinage to meet circulation demand, authorizing re-struck Spanish and Spanish colonial 8 reales for continued legal tender use within Guatemalan territory.

The host coin's origin matters here. Countermarked pieces are found on Lima, Mexico City, and Potosí planchets spanning a wide date range, and the striking quality of the underlying coin varies accordingly.