Obverse Design

The central feature of the obverse is a crowned shield. The shield is the Hapsburg shield belonging to King Phillip II. The upper-left quandrant of the shield is similar to the reverse design, with two castles representing Castile and two lions representing Leon. The upper-right quandrant has vertical lines on the left representing Aragon. The right side of the upper-right quadrant is divided into four by diagonal crossing lines. The top and bottom sections have vertical lines and the right and left sections have two eagles facing each other. This section represents Naples and Sicily. The dot in the middle of the shield just above center is a pomegranate representing Granada.

The lower-left quadrant has at the top solid horizontal bars representing Austria and at the bottom diagonal lines representing Old Burgundy. The lower-right quandrant has at the top a field of fleur-de-lis representing New Burgundy and at the bottom a lion representing Brabant. In the middle of the bottom half of the shield are two rectangles next to each with two more symbols. On the left is a standing lion representing Flanders and on the right an eagle representing Tirol.

A border of beads goes around the shield, and another border of beads appears next to the edge of the coin. In the area between these bead circles was the legend "PHILLIPPVS D. G. HISPANIARVM" and means "PHILLIP BY THE GRACE OF GOD SPAINS" and sounds strange. That is because the legend is continued on the reverse; the whole legend reads "PHILLIPPVS D. G. HISPANIARVM ET INDIAVM REX" which translates to "Phillip, by the grace of God King of the Spains and the Indies." At this time which was shortly after several small kingdoms were combined into one country, Spain was referred to as "the Spains." Of the list of places represented on the shield, Aragon, Castile, Grenada and Leon were small Spanish kingdoms.

Inside the inner circle of beads, next to the shield on the left is an "A" over a "P". This is the Panama mint mark. On the right side of the shield inside the inner circle of beads is a small "O" over "X". This is the assayer mark.

Reverse Design The central feature of the reverse is a cross. This cross is closed with eight semi-circles done in double lines. Enclosing the cross in this fashion is a configuration known as "tressure" or "quatrefoil". In the upper left and lower right quandrants appeared the stylized castles representing Castile (one of the original component kingdoms of Spain). In the upper right and lower left quadrants appeared stylized standing Lions representing Leon (another original Spanish kingdom). A border of beads goes around the central cross, and another border of beads appears next to the edge of the coin. In the area between these bead circles was the legend "ET INDIARVM REX", which is the continuation of the legend from the obverse and means "AND INDIES KING".
Metal Silver from Peru. Weight About 6.87 grams. Size and Shape About round, approximately 27 mm in diameter.
Dates Issued 1580 to 1583. Issurer King Phillip II of Spain. Assayer Assayer o/X, based on the monogram probably had the last name of Ximeno (Jimeno in modern Spanish).
Rarity Very Rare. Other Catalog Numbers Proctor/Stallard Variety 2R.1.
Varieties Two reales cobs from Panama are known with assayer marks of o/X and o/B.
Population Count xx specimens known.
Notes