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6 Shillings 1 Penny - George III FERDIN VII DEI GRATIA, countermarked
| Issuer | British Settlements on the Bay of Honduras (1783-1862) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1810-1818 |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | The reverse displays the full royal coat of arms of Spain at centre, quartered with the castles of Castile and the lions of León, with the Bourbon dynastic oval escutcheon in the centre point. The crowned shield is flanked on either side by the Pillars of Hercules, each entwined with a banner bearing the motto PLUS VLTRA, symbolising Spain's dominion beyond the known world. The circumferential legend, rendered in Latin, proclaims Ferdinand VII as King of Spain and the Indies. Mint assayer initials and denomination indicators appear in the field alongside the mint mark. The entire design is characteristic of the Mexico City Mint's milled coinage of the early nineteenth century. |
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| Additional information |
British merchants in Honduras faced a chronic shortage of small currency throughout the early nineteenth century, and the colonial administration's solution was pragmatic to the point of improvisation: countermark existing Spanish colonial eight-reales with a crowned GR stamp, officially rating them at six shillings and one penny for local circulation. The host coins — struck in the name of Ferdinand VII, the deposed Spanish king held captive by Napoleon — were already politically awkward currency by the time they received their British punch.
KM#1.2 denotes the later countermark variety, distinguished from the earlier #1.1 by punch size and placement details documented by collectors of the series.