Description:
These are genuine Spanish silver coins that were minted in the colonial Spanish mints of Lima, Peru and Mexico City. The obverse side features a castle with the mintmarks and dates. The reverse shows a crowned rampant lion. In the early 16th century Spanish conquistadores Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro conquered the Aztec and Inca Empires. After the discovery of rich silver deposits, the Spanish opened mints in Mexico City in 1536 and Lima, Peru in 1568.
Over the next three centuries, the Spanish and their mighty galleon fleets were the premier supplier of silver and gold coins for the world. This vastly increased the shipping trade and made many merchants wealthy, both in Spain and in the colonies. However, during this adventurous age, it was inevitable that large amounts of Spanish treasure would be lost on land and at sea due to pirates, storms and other unforeseen misfortunes.
These rare coins were minted during the reign of Ferdinand VII, who was overthrown by Napoleon in 1808, but restored to power in 1813. During this time of upheaval, a greatly weakened Spain began to be challenged by wars of independence from the majority of their colonies in the Americas. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. Lima remained a royalist stronghold to the Spanish Crown, but they finally fell to revolutionary forces in 1824. The mints were closed and these are among the last of the Spanish coins to be minted in the Americas.
