Description
George III of the House of Hanover, King of Great Britain 1760-1820 AD, Silver ‘Emergency Issue’ Dollar, Type I, oval counter-stamped on a Spanish 8 Reales dated 1795s CN, struck at Seville Mint. Obverse (host): Bust of King Charles IV of Spain facing right, legend around, “CAROLUS IIII· DEI· G· ·1795·”; Oval Counterstamp of the Laureate Bust of King George III at the centre. Reverse (host): Crowned Shield of Arms of the Spanish Monarch (1700-1868), flanked by “R s” left and “8 C·N” right, legend around, “HISPANIARUM· REX·” (“King of the Spanish People”). Esc-1851; Spink-3765a. An attractive grade for a scarcer host coin for the emergency dollar series, this piece has immense eye appeal with its grade and underlying blue-grey brilliance. Good Very Fine, stamp Very Fine.
The oval counter-stamped coins were struck in response to the crisis of silver coinage at the end of the 18th Century; the supply of silver in commerce and for the Mint had dwindled due to the Wars in France after the Revolution in 1797, causing a shortage for the minting of coins. From March 1797 the Bank of England therefore released stocks of its Spanish and Spanish colonial dollars and halves each with an oval countermark. Unfortunately, this did not alleviate the problem of smaller change and the production of counter-stamps was inconsistent. On top of this, the oval pieces were being readily counterfeited until the more complex, larger octagonal mark replaced them from January to May 1804.
