Bust of Carlos IV. "Crude strike," two pellets after date. Lovely medium gray with a well centered strike and excellent eye appeal for this crude Royalist issue. The obverse is ideally centered and as fully struck as these ever are, with a raised rim around much of the right side. The reverse is soft at the center, opposite the highest relief of the portrait, as well as at the denomination. Aside from a natural lamination near the kings hair ribbon, there are no problems to note. Just a very nice example of the variety with two pellets after the date, called the "crude strike" by Restrepo, though the critique was more of the dies layout than the coins actual striking. This is the final 2 Reales to be coined with a portrait of the king and the only one throughout Latin America to be struck with a reference to the Spanish Constitution decreed under Ferdinand VII. These 1822-O 2 Reales were coined at Pasto, in Ecuador, using equipment evacuated from Popayán when the city fell to Bolívar. Fascinating and historic. From the Eldorado Collection of Colombian and Ecuadorian Coins.
