Dominica No Date (1813) 6 bits
The island of Dominica was first colonized by the French in 1632, and went back and forth many times between the French and British until being fully controlled by the British in 1805. The first coinage was pierced, cut, or otherwise mutilated foreign silver coins, and standardization of this practice took place in 1798. Dominica began using pound sterling in 1862, thus demonetizing all previous cut, pierced, or countermarked foreign coins. According to Byrne[1], the coin type shown here was the result of a 22mm plug left from the fabrication of a 12 bit coin, that was stamped with a crowned 6, for 6 bits.
This example was lot 26517 in Heritage sale 3014 (Chicago, April 2011) and sold for $431. the catalog description reads: "British Colony 6 Bits ND (1813), VG8 NGC, crowned "6" countermark upon cut of colonial 8 Reales. A seldom seen item and very scarce. Pridmore Sale, Lot 297."
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 0.903 fine silver.
Catalog reference: Prid-27, KM 6.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Byrne, Ray, Coins and Tokens of the Caribees, Decatur, IL: Jess Peters, Inc., 1975.
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