8 Escudos Guatemala

The Federal Republic of Central America was barely a year old when these were struck, having declared independence from Mexico's short-lived Agustín I empire in July 1823. Guatemala City's mint — the only functioning gold mint in the federation — continued operating under the new republican authority with minimal interruption, using infrastructure inherited directly from the Spanish colonial apparatus. The transition was administrative more than physical.

Fr#26 is the Feuchs gold reference, confirming this denomination's place in the broader Spanish-tradition coinage family. The federation itself collapsed by 1839, fragmenting into five separate republics, making issues from this early window genuinely short-lived by any measure.