1 Pound 5 Shillings - George II Popayan, countermarked

Jamaica's chronic shortage of specie in the mid-eighteenth century forced colonial authorities to countermark foreign gold rather than wait on London to supply purpose-struck coinage. This piece began life as a Colombian gold escudo from the Popayán mint — one of several South American issues pressed into official Jamaican circulation by proclamation. The countermark authenticated it as legal tender at a locally-assigned valuation, a workaround that suited a sugar economy running perpetually short of hard currency.

Popayán-struck gold was notoriously variable in fineness, which is partly why the assigned value was set conservatively.