Essequibo & Demerary 1833 1/4 guilder
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. The first specimen was lot 6775 in Stack's Bowers NYINC sale (New York, January 2022), where it sold for $60. The catalog description[1] noted, "ESSEQUIBO & DEMERARY. 1/4 Guilder, 1833. London Mint. William IV. NGC AU Details--Cleaned. A decently struck and detailed coin, with traces of toning in the peripheries, and slight porosity in the reverse fields." The second specimen was lot 6511 in Stack's Bowers NYINC sale (New York, January 2022), where it sold for $384. The catalog description[1] noted, "BRITISH GUIANA. 1/4 Guilder, 1833. London Mint. William IV. NGC AU-58. On the brink of mint state, this minor has a light mottled tone and very little sign of actual handling." This type was struck 1832-33 and 1835.
Recorded mintage: 97,000 plus proofs.
Specification: 1.94 g, 0.816 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM-17.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- 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.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The 2022 NYINC Sale: World and Ancient Coins, featuring the Mark and Lottie Salton Collection and the Pat Johnson Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2021.
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