Spanish colonists carried to the New World the Castilian currency system, which had been regulated as to standard, weight, and size of the coins within a bimetallic pattern by the ordinances of Ferdinand and Isabella issued in Medina del Campo in 1497. The double base of the system consisted of the gold excelente (replaced in 1535 by the escudo) and the silver real. The coins of Spanish America were specifically: in gold, the escudo (3.38 grams), two-escudos, four-escudos, eight-escudos, or onza (the famous gold ounce), and the half-escudo, or escudito; in silver, the real (3.43 and 3.38 grams), the half-real and the quarter-real, or cuartillo, and the two-reales, four-reales, and eight-reales (this last known also as the duro, or peso fuerte). During the 16th century, for a brief period, a coin of three reales was minted in Mexico. Gold was not minted in a uniform manner until after the second half of the 17th century; until then Hispanic-American currency had been almost exclusively silver coinage. Copper was rarely minted in Spanish America.

The hammered coinage of Spanish America frequently presents a relatively tidy appearance, being very nearly round and containing all the lettering and required symbols; but the press or mill type coinage is frequently of very poor appearance. These coins of rude mintage are called macuquinas (cob). In the 18th century, by ordinances of Philip V, the setting up of machinery for the minting of a perfectly round coinage, with milled and corded (ropelike) edge, became mandatory.

The type of the Hispanic-American coin was very characteristic: its most constant elements were the Pillars of Hercules and the motto Plus Ultra, plus the monarchy’s coat of arms. In edge-milled coinage the same elements were employed in silver pieces, with the addition between the Pillars of an image of the two crowned hemispheres; this was called the moneda columnaria (“columnar coinage”) and was minted until 1772. From that date, by ordinances of Charles III, silver coinage carried on the face a bust of the reigning monarch and on the reverse the coat of arms, a system already utilized in the gold pieces.

At the beginning of the colonial period, stamped metal foundry pieces frequently substituted for scarce currency. In time, several mints were established, of which the Mexican (1535–1821) and the one at Potosí (1574–1825) were particularly important. Other minor ones, and their dates of operation, were those of Santo Domingo (1542 to the end of the 16th century and 1818 to 1821), Lima (1568 to 1570, 1575 to 1588, 1659 to 1660, and 1684 to 1824), Santa Fe de Bogotá (1626 to 1821), Guatemala (1731 to 1822), Santiago de Chile (1749 to 1817), Popayán (1732 and 1749 to 1822), and Cuzco (1698 and 1824). Coinage of any of these mints had uniform currency throughout the entire Spanish Empire, and the pieces had uniformity of type. They were distinguished by the symbol of the mint, carried on every coin. The following are some of the symbols used: Mexico, M; Potosí, P and, in the edge-milled coins, PTSI and PTS in monogram fashion; Lima, P, L, and, in the edge-milled coins, LIMA and LIMAE in monogram fashion; Santiago de Chile, S; Guatemala, G and NG (for Nueva Guatemala); Santa Fe de Bogotá, NR (for Nuevo Reino); Popayán, P, PN, and P ^N; Santo Domingo, SD; Cuzco, C° and CUZ.

The larger silver and gold pieces, the eight-reales, or pesos fuertes, and the ounces, became in modern times the international currency par excellence. Their dissemination throughout the world was brought about by the uniformity of their standard and milling characteristics. In many countries they were counterstamped to adapt them to a local monetary system or to authorize their currency.

During the wars of independence, between 1810 and 1826, emergency mints were established in different parts of the continent, by the royalists as well as by the patriots. The coinages were almost always crudely designed, being in some instances merely foundry coinage. On other occasions the coins had merely fiduciary value—that is, no intrinsic value at all—as was the case with the numerous coinages of the Mexican patriot José María Morelos (1765–1815), who produced eight-real pieces in copper. Only in Mexico were there mints of any importance, situated in 10 different localities. The coinage situation became further complicated when the authorities of the opposing forces started counterstamping each other’s coins in order to use them within their own camps.

The independent states that arose in Latin America after the revolutions of 1810 proceeded to mint new coins, retaining the bimetallic system established by Spain, with units in reales and escudos, except for copper fractionary units. After 1850, within a period of about 15 years, all the states adopted the decimal system, and the peso became the unit, though in several cases it took a special name. Within the second half of the 19th century, bimetallism was generally replaced by the gold standard, which in the 20th century was replaced in turn by fiduciary currency or paper money, coinages being limited to fractionary pieces or to “merchandise coins” (trade tokens with little inherent metal value).

Coins minted in Spanish America circulated abundantly in Brazil from the 17th to the 19th century. They were given their official value in terms of the Portuguese reis, the corresponding amount being indicated by counterstamping. Hispanic-American eight-real pieces carried an overstamp that was at first of 480 reis, increasing until in edge-milled coins it amounted to 960 reis. By the 18th century, mints were established in Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco, but joint circulation of both Hispanic-American and Portuguese coinages continued. Counterstamping ceased during the first decades of the 19th century, although Hispanic-American eight-real pieces and the equivalent coins of the independent Latin-American countries continued to be reminted with the value of 960 reis for some time. The Brazilian monetary unit that eventually became the milreis later became the cruzeiro, divided into 100 cents.