600 Réis Countermark 'BIG CROWN' over 1 Rupee - Shah Alam II, India - British

Portugal's Atlantic island territories suffered a chronic coin shortage throughout the Napoleonic period, and the solution was systematic countermarking of whatever foreign silver happened to be in circulation. The "Big Crown" punch — applied in the Azores to validate Indian rupees for local use — represents one of the more geographically improbable monetary pairings in Iberian colonial history: a coin struck for the Mughal-successor court of Shah Alam II in Bengal finding its second life valued at 600 réis on an archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic.

Shah Alam II's rupees were struck by the East India Company under his nominal authority after Plassey and Buxar had rendered him effectively a British client. The countermark authorization dates to around 1800.