3 Real Countermark 3 in square

During the Napoleonic Wars, Curaçao changed hands repeatedly between the Dutch and the British, creating chronic shortages of fractional silver. The colonial administration resorted to countermarking foreign coins — predominantly Spanish and Spanish colonial reales — to authorize them for local circulation at revalued denominations. The punched square containing the numeral 3 is the authentication mark, applied to certify both the coin's legitimacy and its assigned value within the island's constrained monetary supply.

Scholt's listing in volume II without a corresponding entry in volume I suggests later documentary recognition of the type.