6 Shillings 8 Pence - George II FERDND VI D G HISPAN ET IND REX, Lima, countermarked

Jamaica's colonial administration faced a chronic shortage of small change throughout the mid-eighteenth century, and the solution — countermarking Spanish colonial eight-reales to circulate at a fixed sterling valuation — was pragmatic rather than elegant. This piece originates from the Lima mint during the reign of Ferdinand VI of Spain, pressed into Jamaican service by a 1758 proclamation that assigned specific countermarked macuquina and milled coinage to defined shilling values for local trade.

The Lima eight-reales of this period are among the more consistently struck examples of Spanish colonial milled coinage, a consequence of Lima's relatively stable mint operation compared to Mexico City during the same decades.