Catalog
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| Issuer | Straits Settlements |
|---|---|
| Year | 1872-1883 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1/4 Cent (0.0025) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Diademed and draped bust of Queen Victoria facing left, engraved in the young portrait style by Leonard Charles Wyon. The Queen wears a small tiara set with jewels and her hair is arranged in flowing waves drawn back into a chignon secured with a ribbon at the nape of the neck. The legend VICTORIA QUEEN curves along the upper and right periphery in raised Latin letters. A beaded border encircles the entire design. The mint mark H appears at the base of the truncation on Heaton-struck examples. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | VICTORIA QUEEN |
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| Additional information |
The Straits Settlements functioned as a Crown Colony administered by the British East India Company until 1867, when the Colonial Office in London assumed direct control — a transfer that prompted a systematic overhaul of the local coinage. This quarter cent was part of that rationalized series, intended to facilitate small transactions in a port economy where fractional values still mattered for daily commerce among a largely cash-dependent population.
By the 1880s, the denomination was already losing its practical utility as price levels shifted. The series was not continued after 1883.