2 reales coin, 1812–1814

The piece

In 1811 Cartagena’s junta ordered copper pieces of a half real and of two reales, with legends in Castilian. This record lists it as a 2 reales of the patriot type, KM# D1 and Restrepo 136 (Hernández 195, Cód. 195 in the 8th ed. 2023, as Numista N#48276 lists it), catalogue years 1811–1814. On the legend side the rim reads “…O · DE · CARTA…”, with a beaded border and, at the bottom, short rays. Worn vertical letters stand in the field: they are not transcribed, and they are not a motto published for the type. Numista places on the reverse of that 2 reales the legend ESTADO DE CARTAGENA VALE DOS REALES, with the value in the center; the sample it publishes carries 1813. Here the year, the full “VALE DOS REALES”, a 2, and a 1/2 are unread. The other side is heavily worn. A device remains that can be seen as a fortification or a heraldic figure; Numista describes on the type’s obverse a figure under a tree. The photographs do not settle that reading. A crack runs into the left edge of that side, the sort of flaw these crude planchets show. The half real of the same junta is KM# D2, Restrepo 131 (Numista N#48277): it stacks 1/2 and ESTADO / CARTA / GENA, and the catalogue gives 3.45 g and 21 mm for the type, not for this disc. The 1815 series, Restrepo 118, is imitation copper of a similar style. Without a readable date, a value mark, or a weight and diameter of this specimen, the record does not split those neighbors by a measurement. It also does not assign the rotated 4 of 1814 (Restrepo 136.3). Numista publishes neither weight nor diameter for KM# D1. No mintage is verified: CoinVarieties leaves the 1814 issue without a figure, and BanRep’s coin tables begin in 1987. Unslabbed. It is not the paper 2 reales printed at Mompós in 1812, nor the Cartagena paper 1 real of 1813 signed by Gutiérrez de Piñeres, nor Santa Fe’s china coin, nor the 1820 Santa Marta copper cuartillo.

Scarcity

Numista publishes no mintage, weight, or diameter for the 2 reales (N#48276). For the half real (N#48277) it gives a type weight of 3.45 g and 21 mm. This specimen was not weighed or measured, and the record publishes no slab census.

Related pieces

Other records from the same issuer or era in this case.

• 1/4 real · Santa Marta · 1820
• 1 real · Bogotá NR–JF · 1810
• 2 centavos · Lazaretto · 1921
• 1 escudo · Popayán P–JF · 1801