![George III, ‘Oval CM' Emergency Dollar, Seville Host [ECM-5] - Image 2](https://colonialcoins.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/5-3-5.jpg)
Description
Kingdom of Great Britain, George III of the House of Hanover, King of Great Britain 1760-1820 AD, Silver Dollar, First Emergency Issue 1797-1799 AD, by process of countermarking with the laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of George III within incuse oval punch on a Spanish Empire Silver Eight Reales dated 1795 S CN, Royal Mint of Seville, Kingdom of Spain (KM-432.1). Obverse of host: Draped Bust of King Charles IV facing to the right, date below, legend surrounds, “CAROLUS IIII· DEI· G·”; countermarked with the bust of King George III over the bust. Reverse of host: Royal Lesser Arms of the Kingdom of Spain (1700-1868), “R s” to inner left field and “8 C·N” to inner right field, legend surrounds, “HISPANIARUM· REX·”. 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, countermark Very Fine.
As a Spanish host coin, the Latin legend is the Royal titulature of King Charles IV of Spain, beginning on the obverse and continuing on the reverse, reading unabridged as “Carolus quārtus, Deī grātiā, Hispāniarum rēx”, with an English translation of “Charles the fourth, by the Grace of God, King of Spanish people”.
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.
