British and Scottish Coins and Countermarked Tokens from the Collection of the late Arthur Chesser

Scotland, Uncertain locality, a MEXICO, Charles IIII, 8 Réales, 1793fm, Mexico City, obv. countermarked cbco in rectangle, 26.96g/12h (Manville 50, and p.98, this coin listed; KM. CCA39.2). Coin and countermark very fine and toned, extremely rare; perhaps only two others known, one of which is in the British Museum £1,500-2,000

Provenance: R.F. Peltzer Collection, Glendining Auction, 20-4 June 1927, lot 235 (part); H.D. Gibbs Collection, Hans Schulman Auction (New York), 19 November 1960, lot 380; bt L. Sverdloff.

At least two other examples of this countermark are known (British Museum, on a Lima 8 réales, 1790, with a provenance back to Cokayne, 1946, and in a German private collection, ex DNW Auction 93, 26 September 2011, lot 1773, ex Mark Teller, 1991). Although previous informed thinking has suggested that the issuer might be Carrick Brown & Co, a Glasgow conglomerate whose interests encompassed banking and muslin manufacture, attribution to Scotland is by no means certain