A Bank of England countermarked dollar issued in 1797. This one features the bust of George III within an oval, countermarked on the neck of Carolus IIII (Potosi mint) eight reales. It is silver...honest!

Originally, these were issued at a value of four shillings and nine pence, giving rise to the witticism of `Two Kings' heads and not worth a crown' and the much more poetic `The Bank, to make their Spanish dollars pass, stamped the head of a fool on the neck of an ass'.

Oh Ian, that's so fantastic

Cool, heard of, but never saw one before.

I've read about this but like ccg hadn't seen one before.

Double post -- sorry.

I love chop marked and counterstamped coins. I too have never seen one of these.What makes it even better is that its from Potosi and not Mexico City.Now if you can find one of those with Chinese chops you would really have a world traveler.

The Bank of England dollar I posted in the virtual museum is struck over a spanish colonial 8 reales (all BofE dollars were, excepting for the proofs) AND has a bankers mark on George III's cheek. Have a look. ;-)

Ian

Both coins are awesome.

Now that we are on this subject,The Bak of England also counterstamped US Bust Dollars, although there are people who doubt the authenisity of the counterstamp.

According to Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins a few french Ecu's and American dollars were counterstamped with the oval stamp, as does Spink's Coins of England. These are however noted as being of the highest rarity.

The oval counterstamped silver was heavily counterfeited and resulted in the later octagonal countermark being used, and then again by the complete overstriking of the host coins with the BofE Dollar design.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting to come across a genuine oval or octagonal Geo.III counterstamp on a US dollar. It would indeed be prudent to suspect the authenticity of the counterstamp on any that you might come across in the wild. ;-)

Way out of my price range, nice to contemplate though.