Jamaica's chronic shortage of small change throughout the mid-eighteenth century forced colonial administrators into improvised solutions. This piece is a Spanish colonial eight-reales — struck at the Guatemala City mint for Ferdinand VI of Spain — that was officially countermarked by Jamaican authorities and given a fixed tariff value of six shillings and eightpence for local circulation. The countermark effectively conscripted foreign silver into British colonial currency without the expense of a dedicated mint.
KM#8.1 distinguishes this Guatemala City host from countermarked examples on Mexican or Lima planchets, which circulate under separate catalog numbers and command different premiums depending on host coin quality.
Jamaica's chronic shortage of small change throughout the mid-eighteenth century forced colonial administrators into improvised solutions. This piece is a Spanish colonial eight-reales — struck at the Guatemala City mint for Ferdinand VI of Spain — that was officially countermarked by Jamaican authorities and given a fixed tariff value of six shillings and eightpence for local circulation. The countermark effectively conscripted foreign silver into British colonial currency without the expense of a dedicated mint.
KM#8.1 distinguishes this Guatemala City host from countermarked examples on Mexican or Lima planchets, which circulate under separate catalog numbers and command different premiums depending on host coin quality.