FERNANDO VI

Santiago onzas and the Treasure of Uruguay. The Santiago mint was the penultimate mint founded by the Bourbons. Chile had long demanded the right to mint its own coinage, at least since 1548, but it wasn’t until the final years of Philip V’s reign that the Santiago mint was established. This came about thanks to a citizen of the city, Francisco García de Huidobro, a native of Burgos, who offered to finance the entire endeavour in 1741. This led to the formal creation of the new mint by Royal Decree on October 1, 1743, with Huidobro receiving the title of Permanent Treasurer of the institution. He was tasked with managing it, covering all expenses, and receiving a share of the profits. Minting began shortly thereafter, following the transfer of much of the equipment and staff from Spain, with the first coin being a 4 escudos gold piece dated 1749. In recognition of his efforts, Huidobro was granted the title Marquess of the Royal Mint in 1760 by the new king, Charles III. From the first period of the Santiago mint, under the reign of Ferdinand VI, comes this collection of onzas, which includes pieces from every year of production between 1750 and 1760. These coins feature the first and third busts of the king, with various reverse design variants and even differences in size. Until 1758, the Santiago mint used smaller flans than other mints and preserved the heraldic order of the Golden Fleece - Order of the Holy Spirit. Many of the onzas from Ferdinand VI's early reign that have appeared on the market were recovered from the wreck of Nuestra Señora de la Luz, which sank in the Río de la Plata off the coast of Montevideo in 1752.