1744 Silver buy Reale - Mexico City

The Spanish 1744 Silver Reale is one of a series struck 1742-47 in Mexico City during the reign of Philip V (1700-46) of Spain. It has been estimated that half of the coins in colonial America were Spanish reales. They were used not only as coinage but also treated as a commodity, as one would use silver or gold bars. The Mexico Mint initially imported silver from Spain and Portugal for coin production, which soon became economically impractical, buy especially after 1592 when large silver deposits were discovered in Mexico. In 1645 Virginia made the Spanish reale the standard currency. In fact, the first coinage authorized by an English Royal patent for the colonies, the American Plantations token, minted at the Tower of London, stated its value on the obverse of the coin not in English currency but as 1/24th of a Spanish real. The South preferred Spanish silver, whole and cut, for its small change; the North used coppers. The South's monetary system resembled that of the Carribean sugar islands, which also had a slave plantation economy; the North's monetary system resembled that of the free economies of Britain, Iteland, and Canada. After Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821 following a war that had started in 1810, the country descended into a period of anarchy. The resulting instability made it impossible to continue operating a centralized mint in Mexico City as it had since the 16th century. Production was instead split up into various workshops around the country. One of those workshops, San Luis Potosi, is where the modern Mexican Mint is located.

The coin is approximately 3/4” in size.

It comes shipped in a plastic archival 2” x 2” sleeve.

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