The name macuquina is known in Spain and Spanish America as the type of coin roughly minted manually with hammer blows, a method widely used from the 16th century to the mid-18th century. There are various opinions about the origin of the word: while some maintain that it comes from the Arabic word "machuch" ('approved' or 'sanctioned'), [1] others claim that it comes from the Quechua expression Makkaikuna - or macay pina -, which would make reference to its manufacture with hammer blows. [2]
The minting of coins manually and with hammer blows has been used by humanity since time immemorial. From the second millennium BC to the 16th century AD this was the most used system in the world to make coins. This does not directly explain why coins of this type existed in the Americas so late in time, given that both the Mexicans and the Incas already worked gold and silver in a fairly traditional and correct manner.
Coinage in several places in Europe was already carried out using the "flywheel press", a large and complex device invented in Italy in the 16th century where metal discs were engraved and cut on both sides using a press. However, such machines, complex for their time and tiring to transport, were not available in the Americas until the beginning of the 18th century and therefore, the first centuries of Spanish colonization were supported by the macuquina currency. The absence of modern machinery to mint money, manufactured outside of Spain, and the needs of commerce in said territories caused the appearance of the macuquinas, also known as "cobs".
Water-powered roller die and punch technology, capable of making high quality, round coinage was imported to Segovia, Spain from Germany in the 1580s, yet the old Royal mint at Segovia continued to make macuquina (cobs). The Royal Mint of Potosi was the last to establish this advanced technology, making them until 1772.
Macuquinas ("Cobs") are the original "treasure coins."
The urgent need for coins in Latin America since the beginning of the 16th century motivated the opening of mints such as the Mexican Mint, founded in 1536 by the first Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco; the Lima Mint in 1565 ordered by the provisional governor Lope García de Castro and the Royal Mint of Potosí, all before the year 1600, in order to take advantage of the great production of silver and gold in American lands in order to minting currency that was essential both for paying tribute to the Spanish crown and for commercial traffic in the colonies.
In 1784 (by which time all macuquinas were over a decade old), King Charles III ordered macuquina in the Indies withdrawn and reminted. The order had to be reissued in 1789, but it remained unfulfilled due to a lack of resources.
Struck and trimmed by hand in the 16th through 18th centuries at Spanish mints in Mexico, Peru, and Colombia (among others), silver and gold Macuquinas (cobs) are handsomely crude, nearly all with a cross as the central feature on one side and either a coat-of-arms (shield) or a tic-tac-toe-like "pillars and waves" on the other side. Silver cobs are known as "reales" and gold cobs are known as "escudos", with two 8 reales (about 27 grams each) equaling one escudo. Some were struck with a date, and most show a mintmark and an initial or monogram for the assayer, the mint official who was responsible for weight and fineness. Size and shape were immaterial, which means that most are far from round or uniform in thickness.
The macuquina's were used heavily used in local transactions in America, although their poor quality produced many complaints. Their irregular shape invited clipping, leading to ever greater numbers of coins below legal weight. Clipped coin tended to migrate at a small profit in commerce to cities in need of coin (often those preparing a fleet for sail) where hard money was accepted at, or near, face value.
They were generally accepted as good currency all around the world, and were the exact coins pirates referred to as "pieces of eight" (8 reales) and "doubloons" (any gold cobs but originally 2 escudos). Their design and history have made them a very popular choice for jewelry. [3]
The peso is the monetary unit of several Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, as well as the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word peso translates to "weight". In most countries of the Americas, the symbol commonly known as dollar sign, "$", was originally used as an abbreviation of "pesos" and later adopted by the dollar. The dollar itself actually originated from the peso or Spanish dollar in the late 18th century. The sign "₱" is used in the Philippines.
In numismatics, the term milled coinage is used to describe coins which are produced by some form of machine, rather than by manually hammering coin blanks between two dies or casting coins from dies.
The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight, is a silver coin of approximately 38 mm (1.5 in) diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content 25.563 g (0.8219 ozt) fine silver. It was widely used as the first international currency because of its uniformity in standard and milling characteristics. Some countries countermarked the Spanish dollar so it could be used as their local currency.
Philippine peso coins are issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for circulation in the Philippines and are currently available in seven denominations. The Philippine peso has been in use since Spanish rule.
The doubloon was a two-escudo gold coin worth approximately $4 or 32 reales, and weighing 6.766 grams of 22-karat gold . Doubloons were minted in Spain and the viceroyalties of New Spain, Peru, and New Granada. As the Spanish escudo succeeded the heavier gold excelente as the standard Spanish gold coin, the doubloon therefore succeeded the doble excelente or double-ducat denomination.
The real was a unit of currency in Spain for several centuries after the mid-14th century. It underwent several changes in value relative to other units throughout its lifetime until it was replaced by the peseta in 1868. The most common denomination for the currency was the silver eight-realSpanish dollar or peso which was used throughout Europe, America and Asia during the height of the Spanish Empire.
The maravedí or maravedi, , was the name of various Iberian coins of gold and then silver between the 11th and 14th centuries and the name of different Iberian accounting units between the 11th and 19th centuries.
The silver real was the currency of the Spanish colonies in America and the Philippines. In the seventeenth century the silver real was established at two billon reales or sixty-eight maravedíes. Gold escudos were also issued. The coins circulated throughout Spain's colonies and beyond, with the eight-real piece, known in English as the Spanish dollar, becoming an international standard and spawning, among other currencies, the United States dollar. A reform in 1737 set the silver real at two and half billon reales or eighty-five maravedís. This coin, called the real de plata fuerte, became the new standard, issued as coins until the early 19th century. The gold escudo was worth 16 reales de plata fuerte.
The real was a currency of Mexico, issued until 1897. There were 16 silver reales to 1 gold escudo, with 8 tlacos to the real. The peso, which circulated alongside the real and eventually replaced it, was equal to 8 reales.
The escudo was either of two distinct Spanish currency denominations.
The Museo Casa de Moneda is a numismatics museum located in La Candelaria neighborhood of Bogotá, Colombia. It is managed by the Bank of the Republic of Colombia and used to display its numismatic collection that is composed by around 18,600 objects that include artwork, banknotes, bonds, coins, derivatives, medals, negotiable instruments, and printing instruments from various periods and regions of the world.
The Philippine real was the currency of the Philippines during the Spanish Colonial Era. Brought over in large quantities by the Manila galleons, eight silver reales made up a silver peso or a dollar. 16 silver real were equal to one gold escudo.
The National Mint of Bolivia or the Mint of Potosí is a mint located in the city of Potosí in Bolivia. It is from this mint that most of the silver shipped through the Spanish Main came.
This article provides an outline of the currency of Spanish America from Spanish colonization in the 15th century until Spanish American independencies in the 19th. This great realm was divided into the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which came to include all Spanish territory north of Panama, the West Indies, Venezuela, and the Philippines, and the Viceroyalty of Peru, which included Panama and all Spanish territory in South America except Venezuela. The monetary system of Spanish America, originally identical to that of Spain, soon diverged and took on a distinctive character of its own, which it passed on to the independent nations that followed after.
The currency of Venezuela has been in circulation since the end of the 18th century. The present currency unit in Venezuela is the Venezuelan bolívar.
Currency in Colombia denotes the ingots, coins, and banknotes that have been used in Colombia since 1622. It was in that year, under a licence purchased from King Philip III of Spain, that Alonso Turrillo de Yebra established a mint at Santa Fe de Bogotá and a branch mint at Cartagena de las Indias, where gold cobs were produced as part of Colombia's first currency. Silver milled coins date from 1627. In 1831, Gran Colombia dissolved into Venezuela and New Granada. In 1836, in New Granada, new monetary laws were passed, to standardise the money produced in the country. From 1861 to 1862, due to financial instability, the United States of New Granada accepted British currency, the name of the country becoming the United States of Colombia in 1862. In 1880, Colombia pegged the peso to the gold standard due to the falling price of silver. In 1886, the paper peso was introduced. In 1931, Colombia abandoned the gold standard and switched to the current form of the peso.
The dobla, including dobla castellana (excelente), gran dobla, dobla de la Banda, dobla cruzada, dobla alfonsi and dobla almohade, was the name of various Iberian gold coins between the 11th and 16th centuries, ranging in value from 2-870 maravedis, depending on the year. The name originated as the "double maravedi", a term used by Castilians for the Muslim dinar, when the maravedí was re-valued as equivalent to the Muslim half-dinar, or masmudina, by Ferdinand III. However, years later, the dobla became various new coins, and at times, a dobla was the same as the newer coins enrique or castellano. In general, a dobla was a valuable gold coin, while the maravedi was de-valued into silver or rarely copper forms. In the 16th century, the dobla was replaced by the ducado, then by the escudo as the standard gold coin of Spain.
The history of Philippine money covers currency in use before the Hispanic era with gold Piloncitos and other commodities in circulation, as well as the adoption of the peso during the Hispanic era and afterwards.
The Great Potosí Mint Fraud of 1649 was a financial fraud involving the fineness of silver coinage that began in Potosí, Bolivia. The scandal had worldwide effects that lasted for decades.