2 Quartos James Spittle

James Spittle operated as a merchant in Demerara — present-day Guyana — during the period when the colony was cycling through administrative hands between the Dutch, French, and British. By 1818 the British had consolidated control, but the currency situation remained genuinely chaotic: Spanish, Dutch, and British coins all circulated simultaneously at improvised rates, and small change was perpetually short. Merchants routinely filled the gap themselves, issuing copper tokens redeemable at their own establishments. Spittle's 2 Quartos piece is one of the very few attributed issues from British Guiana that survives in any quantity.