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10 Bits
| Issuer | Martinique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1770-1772 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Annular reverse of the holed Spanish colonial host coin, retaining the iconic 'Dos Mundos' (Pillars of Hercules) design. Two crowned globes representing the Old and New Worlds are shown between two crowned columns rising from the sea, each column inscribed with the motto 'PLUS VLTRA'. The peripheral legend reads VTRAQUE VNUM, with the Mexico City mint mark 'Mo' appearing on either side of the date 1757 in the lower exergual area. Rosette stops punctuate the legend. The central triangular cutout, characteristic of the Martinique Type IV countermark series, removes a significant portion of the central design. |
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| Mintage | ND (1770-1772) - Host years 1732-1747. |
| Additional information |
The "bits" denomination was a colonial accounting fiction made physical — Spanish silver reales circulating in the French Caribbean were counterstamped and revalued to keep specie from draining out of the islands toward more favorable exchange rates elsewhere. Martinique's crowned RF counterstamp on Spanish colonial 8 reales created these pieces during a brief window when French administrators attempted to regulate a coinage supply they did not themselves produce.
The experiment was short-lived. Metropolitan France reasserted control over Caribbean monetary policy by the mid-1770s, rendering this counterstamp series officially obsolete within years of introduction.