Description
Spanish Empire, Viceroyalty of Peru, Charles IV of the House of Bourbon-Anjou, King of Spain 1788-1808 AD, Silver 8 Reales (26.68g, 38mm), 1797 IJ, Lima mint. Obverse: Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of King Charles IV facing to the right, date below, legend surrounds, “·CAROLUS· IIII· DEI· GRATIA·”. Reverse: Royal Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Spain, Pillars of Hercules type (1700-1868), legend surrounds with mintmark, denomination and assayer’s initials toward the end, “·HISPAN· ET IND· REX·”. KM-97. Light marks and minor reverse flan flaw, otherwise evenly worn and with a steel grey patina, a nice Lima mint type example, near Very Fine.
The obverse Latin legend reads “Carolus Quartus, Deī Grātiā”, with an English translation of “Charles the fourth, by the Grace of God”. The obverse legend continues onto the reverse and reads “Hispāniae et Indiae rēx”, with an English translation of “King of Spain and the Indies”.
The silver 8 Reales, also commonly known as the ‘Spanish Dollar’ or ‘Silver Piece of 8’, is a coin minted by the Spanish Empire since 1497 and was widely used as the first international currency because of its uniformity in standard and milling characteristics. Due to this recognizability and high degree of circulation, the 8 Reales was one of the monetary denominations chosen by the Australian Proclamation of 1800 by Philip Gidley King, the Governor of New South Wales. In order to retain coinage within the Australian colony, each ‘Proclamation coin’ was given a high face value – the silver 8 reales was revalued to Five Shillings, the same face value as a silver crown within Great Britain, despite having less fine silver.
