Macuquina

The name macuquina is known in Spain and Spanish America as the type of coin roughly minted manually with hammer blows, a method widely used from the 16th century to the mid-18th century. There are various opinions about the origin of the word: while some maintain that it comes from the Arabic word "machuch" ('approved' or 'sanctioned'), others claim that it comes from the Quechua expression Makkaikuna - or macay pina -, which would make reference to its manufacture with hammer blows.

Macuquinas

Origin

Although the minting of coins manually and with hammer blows has been used by humanity since time immemorial: from the second millennium BC to the 16th century AD and although this was the most used system in the world to make coins previously This does not directly explain why, so late in time, coins of this type existed in America, given that both the Mexicas and the Incas already worked gold and silver in a fairly traditional and correct manner.

On the other hand, the absence of modern machinery to mint money, manufactured outside of Spain, and the needs of commerce in said territories caused the appearance of the macuquinas. The urgent need for coins in Latin America since the beginning of the 16th century motivated the opening of mints such as the Mexican Mint, founded in 1536 by the first Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco; the Lima Mint in 1565 ordered by the provisional governor Lope García de Castro and the Royal Mint of Potosí, all before the year 1600, in order to take advantage of the great production of silver and gold in American lands in order to minting currency that was essential both for paying tribute to the Spanish crown and for commercial traffic in the colonies.

Coinage in several places in Europe was already carried out using the "flywheel press", a large and complex device invented in Italy in the 16th century where metal discs were engraved and cut on both sides using a press. However, such machines, complex for their time and tiring to transport, were not available in America until the beginning of the 18th century and the first centuries of Spanish colonization were supported by the Macuquina currency.