1⁄50 Dollar - George IV Pattern

Obverse description	Laureate and draped bust of George IV facing left, with finely detailed hair bound by a laurel wreath and ribbon tie visible at the nape. The effigy is rendered in high relief with classical portraiture style typical of early nineteenth-century British coinage. The abbreviated Latin legend curves along the periphery from lower left to upper right, separated by stops. A toothed border frames the entire obverse field.
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Mintage	1823
Additional information	The 1823 British West Indies coinage patterns were produced in London at the direction of the Colonial Office, which was wrestling with a chronic shortage of small change across the Caribbean colonies — a problem made worse by the widespread counterfeiting of local currency and the refusal of Spanish colonial coins to circulate at predictable values. A 1/50 dollar denomination was proposed as part of a rationalized decimal system intended to replace the chaotic mix of cut and plugged coins then passing as currency. The scheme was never adopted. Colonial merchants and planters resisted the change, and the patterns remained just that.