1651 pillars-and-waves type
After the debasement scandals in Peru, cross type cobs were replaced by a type known as pillars and waves in English and as
Perulera in Spanish. These hand struck cobs, like the cross type, degraded in quality as time passed.
Obv.: a cross with lions and castles (similar to the 1572 reverse).
Rev.: a pair of pillars with waves below intersected by three horizontal lines of text, forming a tic-tac-toe design, the top line with the mintmark, the value, and the assayer's initial (e.g. L 8 M = Lima, 8 reales, assayer M), the middle line PLVS VLTR[A] (abbreviated on the smaller coins),
the bottom line the assayer's initial, the last two numerals of the year, and the mintmark (e.g. M 88 L = assayer M, 1688, Lima).
Struck at the Bogotá, Potosí, Cartagena, and Lima mints from 1651 on. Even after the introduction of
milled coinage in 1732, the Potosí mint continued to produce cobs of this type (the last in 1773). These cobs were generally accepted, but there were still occasional periods of debasement, and Peruvian coinage was usually considered inferior.
