Description
Spanish Empire, Viceroyalty of New Spain, Charles III of the House of Bourbon, King of Spain 1759-1788 AD, Silver Two Reales (6.52g, 25mm), 1767 M, Columnario or ‘Pillar Dollar’ type, Mexico City mint. Obverse: Royal Escutcheon of the Armorial of the Kingdom of Spain (1700-1868) surmounted by the royal crown, denomination to to field either side, legend surrounds, “CAR· III· D·G· HISP· ET IND· R”. Reverse: Side-by-side hemispheres surmounted by royal crown and flanked by the Pillars of Hercules, each pillar surmounted by the Spanish Royal Crown and decorated with ribbon inscribed “PLUS VLTR”, ocean floor below, date between two mintmarks below, legend surrounds above, “VTRAQUE VNVM”. KM-87. Evenly worn and with a distinct cabinet tone with underlying magenta in its brilliance, quite a charming pillar type of Mexico City mint, Very Fine, reverse good Very Fine, moderately scarce.
The obverse Latin legend is the Royal titulature of King Charles III, reading unabridged as “Carolus tertius, Deī grātiā, Hispāniae et Indiae rēx”, with an English translation of “Charles the third, by the Grace of God, King of Spain and the Indies”. The reverse Latin legend is stated in full as “utrōque ūnum”, with an English translation of “both into one”.
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 Specie and later Conventionsthaler, the English Crown, the Dutch Daalder, the Scandinavian Daler, and Thaler of the Cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy. At the time of the ‘Pillar’ and ‘Bust’ types of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Eight Reales were struck to a fine silver weight of 24.809 grams and, after 1772, 24.443g. Uniformity in weight standard and milling characteristics, as well as its prolific circulation throughout the world through trade with the Spanish Empire, made the silver Eight Reales widely recognized as the first international currency. Due to this, it 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. Although not specifically mentioned on the Proclamation, all of the fractional coins are considered part of the wider series and therefore, in Colonial Australia, the silver two reales was given a theoretical face value of One Shilling Three Pence.
