Spanish countermarks of the seventeenth century
The Spanish countermarks of the sixteenth century are a complicated and infuriating subject. They were applied by the ever-bankrupt regime to raise the value of the copper coinage (one, two, four and eight maravedis). Some coins have multiple countermarks. The countermarks were extensively counterfeited. Some operators hammered two maravedis coins flat, making them the diameter of a four maravedis, and then applied a fake counterstamp to raise them to eight maravedis. It was easy to get away with this because the genuine countermarks were hastily and crudely applied. In general, if the undertype is obliterated then the countermark is a contemporary fake.
The major catalogs (the SCWC and Cayón) ignore these completely while Calicó mentions them only briefly. This is a pity, because the coins are plentiful.
- Cayón, Adolfo, Clemente Cayón and Juan Cayón, Las Monedas Españolas, del Tremis al Euro: del 411 a Nuestros Dias, 2 volumes, Madrid: Cayón-Jano S.L., 2005.
- Calicó, Xavier, Numismática Española: Catálogo General con Precios de Todas las Monedas Españolas Acuñadas desde Los Reyes Católicos Hasta Felipe VI, 1474 a 2020, Barcelona: Aureo & Calicó, 2019.
- Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
Link to:
Gallery
The following sketches are taken from Numista.
used in 1603
used in 1603
used in 1636
used in 1641-2
used in 1641-2
used in 1651-2
used in 1654-5
used in 1658-9
used in 1658-9
