4 Testerns - Elizabeth I

The East India Company received its royal charter from Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, and these silver testerns were struck almost immediately for use in trade along the West African coast and into the Indian Ocean — not as currency in any conventional sense, but as bullion acceptable by weight to merchants who cared nothing for the issuing authority behind them. The Company had no mint of its own; these pieces were struck under contract, almost certainly at the Tower Mint.

Spink 2607B distinguishes this subtype within a small family of issues that saw limited production before the Company shifted toward adapting foreign coin types for its trade needs.