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31/2 Reaal / 21 Stuiver British Occupation, Countermark C4
| Issuer | Curaçao |
|---|---|
| Year | 1814 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 6.7 g |
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| Obverse description | Quarter-circle segment cut from a Spanish colonial silver coin, retaining a partial effigy and design elements of the host coin in the field. Two applied countermarks are present: countermark C4, an oval punch enclosing the numeral '21' denoting the revalidated value in stuivers, struck in the left portion of the segment; and countermark C5, a five-petaled flower with dots between the petals, applied as a second authentication mark. The arc edge displays the remnants of the host coin's reeded border, while the cut edges are irregular. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Reeded |
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| Additional information |
During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain seized the Dutch Caribbean colonies to prevent French exploitation of their ports. Curaçao changed hands multiple times between 1800 and 1815, and the British administration faced a persistent shortage of small silver. The solution was pragmatic: existing Spanish colonial coinage was countermarked and revalued to circulate at locally defined rates, creating a parallel currency tied to neither Spanish nor Dutch monetary conventions.
The C4 countermark — applied under British authority in 1814, just one year before the island was formally returned to the Netherlands at the Congress of Vienna — is among the more scarce of the Curaçao countermark types.