21/4 Pence TBO Countermark on French Guiana 2 Sous

Tobago's chronic shortage of small change in the late 18th century led colonial authorities to counterstamp whatever foreign copper and billon came to hand. This piece — a French Guiana 2 Sous host — received the TBO mark and a revaluation to 1¾ pence under an 1798 ordinance authorizing the circulation of countermarked coinage on the island. The French Guiana 2 Sous itself was already a colonial expedient, struck in billon at a time when metropolitan France had little interest in supplying its Caribbean periphery with proper small denomination coinage.

Tobago changed hands repeatedly between Britain and France across this period, which complicates provenance on many survivors.