After numerous failed attempts, the Santiago mint was founded by Philip V through a concession dated 1 October 1743 to a wealthy merchant, Francisco Garcia de Huidobro. He proposed to establish the mint at his own expense, in exchange for being appointed its treasurer for life, with the office transmissible to his heirs, and for receiving the profits from the coinage. The Crown retained the right of seigniorage and the possibility of recovering possession of the mint upon payment of the establishment costs, which amounted to somewhat more than 90,000 pesos. The mint began operating in 1749, already under Ferdinand VI. During this reign Huidobro was able to purchase, for 20,000 pesos, one of the four titles that the king ordered to be sold in the kingdom of Chile, choosing the title of Marquis of Casa Real (1755). As for Santiago coinage, regular issues began under Ferdinand VI, with the first doubloon struck in 1750 and the first piece of eight reales in 1751. During this monarch's reign, silver issues were sporadic and very limited, and all were only in the denomination of eight reales; consequently, all these pieces are very scarce. The assayer's mark on all these issues was J, but it should be noted that until April 1758 this initial refers to Jose de Larraneta, who after his death was replaced by Juan Infante de Tobar, who used the same initial for his assays. Regarding this eight reales of 1758, it should be noted that it was produced from silver delivered by various merchants in Arequipa and, after refining, yielded 19,979 coins in September of that year. It is estimated that only about ten to twelve examples survive today. Given its date of production, this is the first issue assayed by Juan Infante.