THE COLLECTION OF CUT AND COUNTERMARKED COINS FORMED BY THE LATE EDWARD ROEHRS (Part I)
27
——— Monnaie d’Haiti (valued at Two Escalins), an irregular-shaped plug from the centre of a Spanish-American 8 Réales, obv. countermarked with an incuse 2, retrograde, 3.24g/50.0 gr (Braun, table 8, II-8). Very fine and toned, extremely rare
£900-1,200 Provenance: J.L. Roper Collection, Stack’s Auction (New York), 9 December 1983, lot 585 (part); bt K.V. Eckardt March 1984.
The ticket with the coin suggests a provenance back to 1885, including periods of ownership by Lyman H. Low and Fernan Davies, but this cannot be verified
Puerto Rico
As an island under colonial status Puerto Rico suffered, as did most of the rest of the West Indies, from a shortage of the small denomination coin necessary for everyday marketplace transactions. Silver coins in Puerto Rico were, at some point, pierced with a small hole near the edge, apparently in the belief that coins damaged in this manner would tend to remain on the island. If this piercing of the coins was an official decree there is no evidence for it that has been uncovered thus far.
Island officials determined that prolonged usage of these pierced coins would lead to future problems, so in order to control the overall amount of pierced coins in circulation they decided to authorise countermarking of the pierced coins for a limited time. After the expiry of this authorised action no pierced coins were to be permitted to be brought into the island and, furthermore, any pierced coins in circulation that were not countermarked would no longer be accepted as legal tender. This action was approved by the General Treasury Department on 27 November 1884.
On 11 March 1885 notification was sent to the various customs houses, where the countermarking was to take place, advising that a ‘stamp’ would be sent to them. On 14 March 1885 the stamps were supplied and pierced coins presented by the population would be countermarked. The final date for countermarking was set as 31 March 1885 and it was decreed that, from 1 April 1885, any pierced coins without the official countermark would no longer be legal tender.
There is a question as to how many customs houses were supplied with stamps. It would appear that at least seven were authorised to countermark coins but perhaps there were as many as nine. One, located in Fajardo, sent a report to the Treasury, dated 1 April 1885, indicating the number of coins that they countermarked during this two-week period as 99 pesos (dollar-sized coins), 1,039 half-pesos and 2,963 pesetas (quarter-dollar-sized coins), a total of 4,101 coins. The quantity of officially countermarked coins was quickly supplemented by numerous contemporary forgeries.
On 17 March 1894 a government directive was issued recalling all pierced coins in circulation, with or without a countermark, provided that the coin itself had a date of 1885 or earlier (as it was prohibited to import pierced coins into the island after the initial action of March 1885). The population was given until 26 March 1894 to redeem their coins at their local customs house, after which no pierced coins, countermarked or otherwise, would be legal tender.
28
Authority of November 1884, Peso (valued at One Dollar), U.S.A., Trade Dollar, 1877, holed near edge and obv. countermarked with an incuse fleur-de-lis, 26.91g/415.2gr (KM. 14). Stained on reverse, otherwise very fine and extremely rare
£600-800 Provenance: E. Archilla Collection, acquired 1984
29
Provenance: From an old collection in Arecibo, Puerto Rico; bt M. Martinez Gonzales ——— Half-Dollar, VICEROYALTY OF PERU, Charles IIII, 4 Réales, 1793IJ, Lima, holed near edge and obv.
countermarked with an incuse fleur-de-lis, 13.13g/202.6gr (KM. 12). Fine or better, extremely rare £250-300 These lots are illustrated on our web site
www.dnw.co.uk
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