The Roehrs Collection of West Indies Cut and Countermarked Coins (Part I)

St. Bartholomew (St. Barts), Tortola-St. Barts, Authority of 30 December 1808, Eighteen Stuivers, Spain, Charles III, 2 Réales (Head Pistareen), 1773cf, Seville, rev. counterstamped tirtila raised within a shaped indent [type II], then obv. countermarked with crowned 18/m raised within an elliptical indent, 5.06g/78.1 gr (Olrog p.184; cf. Prid. 8 for type; Burzio 481, this coin; KM. 13, this coin). Coin poor and pierced, countermarks about fine, the tirtila mark partly flattened by the application of the stamp on the obverse, the Morin stamp extremely rare as is the tirtila stamp on a whole coin, the combination of the highest rarity £1,500-2,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Cut and Countermarked Coins formed by the late Edward Roehrs.

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Provenance: Coin Galleries Mailbid Sale, 23 March 1971 (567).

Evidence suggests that the head pistareens, which should have been valued in St. Barts at 14 stuivers, were accepted at the same value as the 2 réales from the Spanish-American mints, which were tariffed at 18 stuivers.

The local Tortola Act of February 1801 provided for whole coins to be stamped, but it is assumed that few whole coins suffered this fate as the authorised limit of the currency amount to be stamped would have not permitted enough cut money to have been countermarked (Eckardt, SNC March 1981)