POST MEDIEVAL COIN

1788

An incomplete milled probable contemporary copy of a silver Spanish 'dollar' or eight reales of Charles IV of Spain (AD 1788 to AD 1808). Diameter: 39.3 mmThickness: 3.7 mmWeight: 31.0 gDue to a shortage in coinage during the late 1790s, a number of coins from South America and Spain were counterstruck with the portrait of George III from 1797 until about 1820. However this example does not bear the countermark and is made from copper alloy as opposed to silver, suggesting that it may be a contemopary copy. According to Walden, Timothy (2002), The Spanish Treasure Fleets, Pineapple Press Inc., p. 195, cited in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Boulton, these coins were extensively forged. This led to Boulton developing a process of obliterating the old coin design when re-issuing further counterstamped coins.See SWYOR-7B5EA7 for another similar example on the PAS database.