![Spanish Empire, Bolivia, Charles IV, 8 Reales, 1808PJ [ACP4-35] - Image 2](https://colonialcoins.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ACP4-35.jpg)
Description
Spanish Empire, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, Charles IV of the House of Bourbon-Anjou, King of Spain 1788-1808 AD, Silver 8 Reales (27.01g, 39mm), 1808 PJ, Potosi 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-73. Awash with a dusty patina, obverse surfaces a bit busy with contact marks less apparent in hand, a pleasing coin otherwise, Very Fine.
The Latin legend is the Royal titulature of King Charles IV, beginning on the obverse and continuing on the reverse, reading unabridged as “Carolus quārtus, Deī grātiā, Hispāniae et Indiae rēx”, with an English translation of “Charles the fourth, by the Grace of God, King of Spain and the Indies”.
The Eight Reales, also known as the ‘piece of eight’ or the ‘Spanish dollar’, was a large silver coin struck by the Spanish Empire following the monetary reform of 1497 and was a keen rival to its other large silver contemporaries such as the Holy Roman Empire’s Reichsthaler and later Conventionsthaler, the English Crown, the Dutch Daalder, the Scandinavian Daler, and Cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy Thaler. At the time of the ‘Pillar’ and ‘Bust’ Dollars of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Eight Reales were struck to a fine silver weight of 24.809g and, after 1772, 24.443g. Due to its high degree of circulation within the expansive Spanish Empire and its uniformity in standard and milling characteristics, the Eight Reales was widely recognized as the first international currency and consequently was one of the monetary denominations chosen by Philip Gidley King, the Governor of New South Wales, for the Australian Money Proclamation of 1800 – Australia’s first monetary system. In order to retain coinage within the Australian colonies, each ‘Proclamation coin’ was given a high face value – the Spanish Dollar was revalued to Five Shillings, the same as an English crown despite having less fine silver.
