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3 Reaal / 18 Stuiver British Occupation, Countermark C5
| Issuer | Curaçao |
|---|---|
| Year | 1815 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Triangular cut piece bearing the British colonial countermark C5: a five-petalled rosette punched within a raised circular incuse, with small dots occupying the spaces between each petal. The countermark is applied to the host coin's field, which retains partial design elements of the underlying Spanish colonial silver coinage. The irregular triangular shape results from deliberate cutting to produce a fractional denomination for local circulation. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain triangular silver surface representing the reverse of the cut host coin, retaining faint ghosted traces of the original Spanish colonial design, including portions of what appears to be a shield or milled edge, now largely obscured by the cutting and wear. No countermark or additional stamp is present on this face. The irregular edges and pitted silver surface are characteristic of hand-cut fractional coinage produced under the British occupation of Curaçao. |
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| Additional information |
During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain occupied Curaçao twice — briefly in 1800, then again from 1807 until the island was formally returned to the Netherlands in 1816. With no fresh coinage arriving from Europe, the colonial administration improvised by countermarking existing Spanish and Dutch colonial silver to authorize it for continued circulation at locally set valuations. This piece carries the crowned "C5" punch applied under that regime.
The host coins most commonly encountered with this mark are Spanish colonial 2-reales pieces. The 18-stuiver valuation assigned here reflects the awkward conversion arithmetic between the Spanish real system and the Dutch stuiver-based accounting still in use on the island.