Essequibo & Demerary 1816 2 guilder
The Essequibo and Demerary were originally two of three Dutch colonies along the coast of present-day Guyana. They were seized by the British to avoid having them fall into French hands after the French invasion of the Netherlands. They remained in British control through the 1830's, at which point the Netherlands and Great Britain formally divided the region between them, the British taking over the western portion. This mixed colonial origin shows in the coinage: though the portrait of the British monarch is honored on the obverse, the denominations are clearly Dutch.
This coin is a silver two guilder, dated 1816. It was lot 50439 in Heritage sale 441 (Long Beach, September 2007) where it sold for $586.50. The catalog description reads: "Essequibo & Demerary George III 2 Guilder 1816, bold AU, just a faint rub on the King's cheek, cleaned long ago leaving hairlines in the exposed fields. Very scarce in this grade."
Recorded mintage: 15,000.
Specification: 15.50 g, 0.816 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM 14.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
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