POST MEDIEVAL COIN

1804

A Milled Post-Medieval counterfeit silvered copper alloy coin; a contemporary copy of a silver Spanish 'dollar' or eight reales of Charles III or IV of Spain, counterstruck with the bust of George III (1760-1820). Due 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. According to Lasser et al. (1997, page 38) in The Coins of Colonial America, the octagonal counterstamp was introduced in 1804. 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.This coin has been silvered and is a contemporary forgery. See Spink (2003), page 381, number 3766.Reference: Lasser et al:http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_-JrC1XgWnIC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=counterstruck+George+III&source=bl&ots=rVF8sXM8_c&sig=yT8YwCUOXzeOJJl4bg4-IKT82v0&hl=en&ei=mbzPTtboAorqOcqZtaAP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=counterstruck%20George%20III&f=false . Accessed 25-Nov-2011.