Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Black Dog
| Issuer | Nevis |
|---|---|
| Year | 1801 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Oblong incuse counterstamp applied diagonally across the center of the host coin's field, bearing the legend NEVIS in raised Latin capitals within a rectangular punch. The counterstamp was applied by Nevis colonial authorities to validate the host coin for local circulation, and is clearly visible overstruck upon the host coin's central devices. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Black Dog was a desperately improvised solution to chronic small-change shortages across the British Caribbean. Nevis, like many Leeward Islands, had virtually no official coinage infrastructure, and by 1801 the island's economy ran largely on cut and countermarked Spanish silver, warehouse receipts, and outright barter for minor transactions. Billon — that low-grade silver-copper alloy — was the currency of last resort, chosen precisely because it could be produced cheaply enough to make fractional coinage economically viable.
The name "Black Dog" almost certainly derives from the coin's dark, tarnished appearance: billon oxidizes quickly in tropical humidity.