In 1810 there were two types of 8 Reales issued by the Mexico City Mint, both issued under Ferdinand VII. They were the 1810 TH and the 1810 HJ.

The practice at the mint was to identify the assayers by placing the senior assayer’s initial first when going around the coin clockwise, using the initial of what we call “the first name” in the United States of America. “Senior” refers to the assayer hired first at the mint.

The years 1809 and 1810 were special cases where 3 first class assayers were employed at the Mexico City Mint at the same time. Tomas Butron Miranda (T) was an assayer from 1801 into 1810, Henrique Buenaventura Azorin (H) from 1803 into 1814, and Joaquin Davila Madrid (J) was an assayer from 1809 into 1833. 

At the larger Colonial Mints when more than 2 first class assayers were employed, the third would normally be assigned to such duties as making retail purchases and assisting the comptroller with the calculations related to alloys.

The 1809 and 1810 8 Reales produced at the Mexico City Mint appear to create an anomaly that needs further explaining. 

How can the assayers TH and then HJ be on coins minted in 1809, which indicates a normal progression of assayers indicating (T) left and (J) was hired, then followed by coins the next year in 1810 have assayers TH again?  Did Tomas Butron Miranda (T) leave the Mint as indicated by 1810 TH in 1810?  If so, what were his duties after they hired Joquin David Madrid (J) in 1809?

The bigger story during this time period was the abdication of Carolus IIII on March 19, 1808.  Carolus turned the throne over to his oldest living son, Ferdinand VII, who then became King of Spain on that date. (Four of Ferdinand’s older brothers had died when young children). 

Napoleon Bonaparte had a large standing army in Spain at that time, and distrusted Ferdinand VII. Napoleon was able to get Carolus IIII to retract his abdication of March 19 and abdicate instead to Napoleon Bonaparte on May 5.  Ferdinand VII was forced to abdicate (turn the throne back over to his father) on May 6.  Since Carolus had abdicated to Napoleon the previous day, Napoleon held the throne, who turned it over to his older brother Joseph, who became King Joseph I of Spain on June 6, 1808.  On August 11 the abdications of Carolus to Napoleon and Ferdinand to Carolus were declared null and void.  On August 24, Ferdinand was proclaimed King of Spain again.  On January 14, 1809, the British Government acknowledged Ferdinand VII as King of Spain.  Emperor Napoleon agreed to acknowledge Ferdinand King of Spain on December 11, 1813, at which time he turned the throne back over to Ferdinand VII, who again became King of Spain from December 11, 1813 until his death on September 29, 1833. During this period from 1808-13, Spain’s central government recognized Joseph as King, but the citizens of Spain did not.

For the Reales minted during this time, dies from Spain were not sent to the Colonial Mints in 1808 after Ferdinand VII became King. At the Mexico City Mint, the Ferdinand VII Armored Bust series was used during the period 1808-11 where a made-up or imaginary portrait of Ferdinand VII was used since they did not know what he looked like. The mints at Lima, Peru and Santiago, Chile made their own different versions of Ferdinand VII’s portrait during this time period.  At the Mexico City Mint, official versions of Ferdinand VII’s portrait started in 1811 with the Draped Bust series.

Mexico City 8 Reales from 1791 issued under Carolus IIII through the armored bust series ending in 1811 issued under Ferdinand VII were 89.6% pure silver.