Picked up this nothing-very-special 1790 Half Reale coin of the Mexico City Mint at my Local Coin Club meeting last week. This coin is about the size and thickness of a US dime. This is the KM #71 listing (Krause-Mishler "Standard Catalog of World Coins-Spain, Portugal and the New World"). The label shown below states 90.3% silver and actual silver weight of 0.044 ounces. KM says 89.6% silver and a ASW of 0.0487 ounces. So a discrepancy there. I tend to believe KM. Why is this posted in the US Coins Forum? I include in my US Type Set any coin that would have circulated freely in commerce in the US or its earlier colonies. That includes pretty much all the Spanish Colonial coins of Latin and South America. Maybe not the earliest cobs of the 16th and 17th centuries since those that didn't go to the ocean floor or into pirate/privateer booty were all shipped to Spain to be remelted to pay off the regime's war debts. But certainly when the Spanish colonial mints started making milled coinage in the early 18th century, the North American Colonies were sufficiently advanced economically to make extensive use of this coinage. In fact, the US government didn't outlaw the use of Spanish coinage in the US until 1857. So I look for examples of this coinage and pick up examples when convenient and low-priced. I am still educating myself on silver and gold cobs to see if I can pick one up dating from about 1650 or later since they could have circulated in North America about the same time as the English and Massachusetts silver coinage. You might appreciate a few explanations about the legends and devices: On the obverse is the bust of Charles IV, shown as IIII per typical Spanish usage at the time. The legend is Latin: "Carolus (Charles) IIII Dei Gratia (By the Grace of God". The legend continues onto the reverse as "Hispan Et Ind R" (Spain and the Indies, Rex). The obverse and reverse legends together say "Charles IV by Grace of God King of Spain and the Indies". The Mexico City mint mark is the M with the small O atop it. The F and M are probably assayers initials, typical of Spanish colonial coinage. The two pillars are the Pillars of Hercules which symbolize the Straits of Gibralter. The left ribbon says "PLUS" and the right ribbon says "ULTRA". Together these say "more beyond". The symbolism is stating that Spain lays claim to all lands west of the Straights of Gibralter and this symbolism dates to the earliest coinage struck in Spain for the New World in about 1505 and is used on much of the cob and milled coinage struck in the New World. The shield shows the heraldic devices of lions (Leon) and Castles (Castile). No denomination on this small coin.
