Johannis Countermark C1 and C2, without mint mark

In the final decade of the eighteenth century, the Dutch colony of Curaçao faced a chronic shortage of circulating coinage — a problem endemic to Caribbean colonial economies dependent on whatever specie arrived by ship. The colonial administration's solution was to countermark existing Spanish colonial gold escudos, authorizing them for local circulation at a fixed valuation. The Johannis countermarks, applied in two successive punches, transformed foreign coin into something the colonial government could formally account for.

The absence of a mint mark on this type reflects application outside any formal minting facility — these were stamped by colonial authority, not produced by one.