Santo Domingo's billon coinage of this period emerged from a colonial administration clinging to Spanish loyalty while neighboring Saint-Domingue had already become Haiti. The eastern third of Hispaniola briefly reverted to French control in 1795 under the Treaty of Basel, then back to Spain in 1809 — this issue postdates that reconquest, struck under a crown that was itself occupied by Napoleonic forces. Ferdinand VII, in whose name it was issued, spent most of this period as a prisoner at Valençay.
Santo Domingo's billon coinage of this period emerged from a colonial administration clinging to Spanish loyalty while neighboring Saint-Domingue had already become Haiti. The eastern third of Hispaniola briefly reverted to French control in 1795 under the Treaty of Basel, then back to Spain in 1809 — this issue postdates that reconquest, struck under a crown that was itself occupied by Napoleonic forces. Ferdinand VII, in whose name it was issued, spent most of this period as a prisoner at Valençay.