Countermark on Bank of England Dollar 1804

[Andrey5]

Could anybody advise on the origin of this dog (horse ?) countermark on reverse (near B in BANK) of this Bank of England Dollar? Is this a private countermark?

http://avscoins.com/Dollar-1804.jpg

http://avscoins.com/c-m.jpg

[gxseries]

Andrey5, you might be surpised to know that your example might be an overstruck example over a Spanish 8 pieces of reals (I think that's the right denomination?). Currently I can see some underlying image under the text area but I can't see enough of it to determine whether it is actually double struck or a genuine overstruck example. The only reason why I can say this is because I have seen another example of such and it's overstruck feature is very clear. I really suggest that you should give it an investigation to see what you got there as it could significantly raise the value of your coin.

 

I'm only spectulating that the countermark is only done because the Bank of England or someone else has approved the coinage and therefore allowed it to circulate.

 

Unfortunately as much as I wanted to buy that example of the 1804 overstruck on Spanish reals, the price tag was too high, some 800 Australian dollars which is definately not what I can afford.

[Andrey5]

Andrey5, you might be surpised to know that your example might be an overstruck example over a Spanish 8 pieces of reals (I think that's the right denomination?).

 

Yes, I know that these bank dollars were overstruck on Spanish colonial 8 Reales. A couple of years ago I sold one with well visible elements of a host coin.

 

http://avscoins.com/[GB-47]GB-Dollar-1804.jpg

 

Probably I should have kept it, but I needed money badly at that moment and somebody convinced me to sell after I bought a coin in a better grade for my collection, but without the host coin's legend visible.

 

http://avscoins.com/GB-Bank-Dollar-1804.jpg

 

I doubt that Bank of England needed to certify the coin it minted with an additional countermark. It is probably a private countermark. I would be interested to know if the countermark is from Britain or any of its colonies. If it could be traced to Africa, the coin would be of particular interest to me since I collect coins from that continent.

[gxseries]

Nice example Andrey5 By the way, are such coins very expensive? A rough price estimate would be great, especially for coins that have the host coin legend very visible.

 

I'm somewhat guessing that it was a merchant countermark like what they did in Asia, i.e. cerifying that it's struck in silver content. That's the main purpose of countermark.

[Andrey5]

By the way, are such coins very expensive? A rough price estimate would be great, especially for coins that have the host coin legend very visible.

 

I checked my records and found that the Bank Dollar with visible Spanish 8 Reales legend I sold in February 2006 for 650 Euro. At that time Euro was US$1.2, but anyway these coins are not cheap. The 2006 41st edition of Spink estimates this coin in VF depending on the variety between 300 and 400 GBP (EF between 575 and 675 GBP) and also states that "Dollars that show dates and Mint marks of original coin are worth rather more."