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The central feature of the obverse is a crowned shield. The shield is the Hapsburg
shield belonging to King Phillip II. The upper-left quandrant of the shield
is similar to
the reverse design, with two castles representing Castile and two lions
representing Leon. The upper-right quandrant has vertical lines on the
left representing Aragon. The right side of the upper-right quadrant is divided
into four by diagonal crossing lines. The top and bottom sections have vertical
lines and the right and left sections have two eagles facing each other. This
section represents Naples and Sicily. The dot in the middle of the shield just
above center is a pomegranate representing Granada.
The lower-left quadrant has at the top solid horizontal bars representing Austria
and at the bottom diagonal lines representing Old Burgundy. The lower-right
quandrant has at the top a field of fleur-de-lis representing New Burgundy and
at the bottom a lion representing Brabant. In the middle of the bottom half
of the shield are two rectangles next to each with two more symbols. On the
left is a standing lion representing Flanders and on the right an eagle
representing Tirol.
A border of beads goes around the shield, and another border of beads
appears next to the edge of the coin. In the area between these bead circles
was the legend "PHILLIPPVS D. G. HISPANIARVM" and means "PHILLIP BY THE GRACE OF
GOD SPAINS" and sounds strange. That is because the legend is continued on the
reverse;
the whole legend reads "PHILLIPPVS D. G. HISPANIARVM ET INDIAVM REX" which
translates to
"Phillip, by the grace of God King of the Spains and the Indies." At this time
which was shortly after several small kingdoms were combined into one country,
Spain was referred to as "the Spains." Of the list of places represented on the
shield, Aragon, Castile, Grenada and Leon were small Spanish kingdoms.
Inside the inner circle of beads, next to the shield on the left is an "A" over
a "P". This is the Panama mint mark. On the right side of the shield inside
the inner circle of beads is a small "O" over "X". This is the assayer mark.
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