1 Bit Countermark

Grenada's bit coinage emerged from a chronic shortage of small change that plagued the British Caribbean throughout the eighteenth century. Colonial administrators solved the problem crudely but effectively: Spanish colonial reales were cut into segments and countermarked to circulate at locally assigned values. This particular piece — a fragment of a Spanish silver coin punched with official authority — predates any purpose-struck Grenadian coinage by decades.

The island had been British only since 1763, ceded by France under the Treaty of Paris. Spanish silver still dominated everyday commerce regardless of which flag flew over St. George's.