1760 Silver Medal Betts-483, Mexico City

Coin Details

Description

This 1760 silver medal (Betts-483) is a proclamation medal from Mexico City celebrating the accession of Charles III. Mexico City was the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the most important colonial city in the Americas, making its proclamation medal one of the most prestigious issues in the entire Spanish colonial series. The Mexico City mint was the largest in the New World, and proclamation medals produced there typically exhibited the highest quality of engraving and striking. Charles III's accession in 1759 was particularly significant for the Americas because his reformist policies would reshape colonial trade, taxation, and governance over the following decades, directly contributing to the conditions that eventually produced Latin American independence movements. Many Betts medals exist in multiple metal compositions struck from the same dies, as mints typically produced gold or silver presentations for dignitaries alongside bronze or copper versions for wider distribution.

Rarity Notes

Original 1760 silver. Mexico City proclamation medal. Scarce.

Cross References

Betts-483; Mexico City; Charles III proclamation 1760; Viceroyalty of New Spain