Indian 1/2 Rupee counterstamped Victoria

Obock was a tiny French-controlled port on the Gulf of Tadjoura, acquired in 1862 largely to counter British influence at Aden. When French Somaliland was being organized in the 1880s and 1890s, Indian rupees already dominated local trade — counterstamping them with an "O" was a pragmatic administrative fix, not a mint operation. The territory issued its own proper coinage only briefly before Djibouti superseded Obock as the colonial capital.

The host coins are British Indian half rupees of the Victoria series, struck at Calcutta or Bombay. The counterstamp dates span well past Victoria's 1901 death, meaning the stamped coins circulated under Edward VII and into the George V period on identical host pieces.