THE 8 ESCUDOS OF 1754/3 Mo MF AND THE TRANSITION OF 1754

1754 It’s an interesting and complex date for the Mexico Mint, given that during this year in addition to having a change of assayer, they were introduced slight changes in design. Undoubtedly the best known is the change from "Royal" to "Imperial" Crown on the left pillar of the Columnarios. The adaptation was first only carried out in pieces of 8 Reales, in 4 Reales it happened the following year and in the other denominations until 1757, which did not happen in any of the other mints. Regarding the 8 Reales, updated references consider within the period of Fernando VI two subtypes; those minted between 1747-1754 with royal crowns, popularly called "crowns alike" (KM# 104.1, A&C# 469-484) and those later from 1754-1760 with Imperial and Royal crowns or "different crowns" (KM# 104.2, A&C# 485-497, Figure 1). Brad Yonaka in his work "A Variety Guide of the Silver and Copper Coinage of the Mexico City Mint 1732-1771” Pag. 41-42, proposes some theories of why of the changes.

One can expect that all the denominations of Escudos also presented some kind of variant, at least in the denominations of greater value, it was so, that inspecting examples of 1754 two main variants were identified on obverses:

¹It refers to the floral ornaments of 6 petals that emerge from the center.

²It refers to the floral ornaments of 5 petals that emerge from the center.