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4 maravedis - Felipe IV countermark
| Issuer | Spain |
|---|---|
| Year | 1654-1655 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | 0.6 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | IIII |
| Reverse description | Countermark displaying the date of revalidation, visible as '1654' or '1655', struck within a punch on the reverse field of the host coin. A cross or decorative device appears alongside the date numeral, consistent with the resello countermarks applied by royal decree during the reign of Felipe IV. The host coin's original reverse design is largely obscured beneath the countermark and general wear, with only fragmentary traces of the underlying legend surviving. |
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| Additional information |
This piece is not a new coin but a recycled one — part of Spain's desperate mid-17th century effort to manage a copper currency crisis of its own making. Decades of aggressive vellón inflation, driven by royal mints flooding Castile with low-denomination copper to finance war debt, had so thoroughly devalued circulating maravedis that the Crown attempted a forced revaluation by countermarking older, heavier pieces at a reduced nominal value. The 1654–1655 countermark program was itself a reversal of earlier reseallings that had inflated values upward.
The underlying host coin could originate from any number of earlier reigns and mints, making attribution of individual pieces genuinely complex.