British West Indies 1822 1/4 dollar
This specimen was part of lot 26565 in Heritage sale 3022 (New York, January 2013), which sold for $1,116.25. The catalog description[1] noted, "Lot of four Coins 1822, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 Dollar, KM1-4, all 'Anchor Money' types. Struck for use in Canada and the entire British West Indies. Grades average XF, the 1/2 Dollar is quite scarce." These colonial issues were made 1820-22 and are rather scarce in nice condition. The odd alloy (instead of the usual .925 sterling) suggests they were made from melted down Spanish dollars. The British West Indies included Jamaica, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and the miscellaneous islands in between. Enormously prosperous in the eighteenth century, their economies would shrink considerably in the mid-nineteenth century with slave emancipation and the introduction of the sugar beet to Europe. An overdate, 1822/1, is reported.
Recorded mintage: 71,000.
Specification: .892 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM 3.
- Byrne, Ray, Coins and Tokens of the Caribees, Decatur, IL: Jess Peters, Inc., 1975.
- Pridmore, F., The Coins of the British Commonwealth of Nations to the end of the Reign of George VI 1952: Part 3, Bermuda, British Guiana, British Honduras and the British West Indies, London: Spink & Son, 1965.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Bierrenbach, Cristiano, Warren Tucker and David Michaels, Heritage World and Ancient Coins Auction 3021, featuring the Cecil Webster, Richard P. Ariagno and Elizabeth McPhall Charters Collection, Dallas: Heritage Auction Galleries, 2012.
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