2 Reales - Philip II

By royal decree (Real Cédula) signed in 1565 by King Philip II, the foundation of the Lima Mint was authorized; the order only allowed the coinage of silver: ¼ Real, ½ Real, 1 Real, 2 Reales and 4 Reales.  Minting activity begun in 1568 with Alonso Rincón as assayer, who marked the coins of this First Series of the Lima Mint with a small R. He was active in Lima till 1569, when he was dismissed because of the production of underweight coins, including unallowed pieces of 8 Reales. 

Rincón was succeeded in 1570 by Xinés Martínez, whose coins of this First Series marked with an X are very rare.

The Lima Mint eventually stopped its production in late 1570, and half of it´s inventory was moved first to La Plata (nowadays Sucre), than to Potosi in 1571 by decision of the Viceroy of Perú Francisco de Toledo.

Before the Potosí Mint was established (1573), the Lima Mint used as mintmark a P (Perú), which appears between the columns of the reverse of this First Lima Series.