|
Date: |
|
Description: | A post-Medieval copper alloy 8-marevadis of Philip III (1598-1621 AD) from the 'Ingenio' at Segovia - i.e., the machine-made issues characteristic of that mint; revalued under Philip IV (1621-65 AD) by countermarking to 12 maravedis, 1659.Obverse: PHILIP[ ]; Crowned 'Philippus' monogramReverse: 'REX' in monogram, with the date 1659 below (new value reads downwards above the X, 'XII')The recorder is indebted to Edward Besly, David Mortimer-Kelly and Tony Perez for the identification of this coin.Further information on this fascinating coin has been kindly acquired by Tony Perez, from J. Doramas of 'Foros Maravedis', Spain:It appears that it started its life as an 8 Maravedis of Philips IV and it was struck at the Royal Mint House of Segovia between 1603/1626 and later re-stamped as a XII Maravedis in 1641/1642 . The identifier has clearly marked the "XII" stamp on my coin and finally, the whole coin was re-struck again with the anagram of 1659 seemingly by the Seville or Granada Mint (the letter "S" for this Mint is under the legend on the reverse, but due to lack of detail is not 100% clear).The new identifier has kindly sent me two photos of a similar coin from his private collection (attached) first one of the original coin struck and stamped in 1603-1626 as an VIII Maravedis on one side, later re-stamped as a XII and clearly seen on the other and finally re-struck by order, but in this sample, in 1658.The re-stamping and re-striking "by hammer" of post medieval coins by Royal Decree in Spain, took place in the XVII century and was carried out during the reigns of Philips III, Philips IV and possibly Carolos II.Royal Mint coin issues from 1603 to 1659. What is re-stamping? A translation:In the beginning, they were a series of stamps on both obverse and reverse sides to change the monetary value of the preexisting coins. IN REALITY, it was just an original way to collect taxes by the Spanish Monarchy, which during the grater part of the XVII century was involved in a series of conflicts and economical crisis that brought about an urgent need to bring in funds to subsidy the various expenses carried out by the government of the day.How was the re-stamping carried out?The new values assigned to each original piece were always higher. Also, it was made compulsory for the people to take it upon themselves to take their coins to their nearest Mint House for the purpose of re-stamping.So, in this way, a person with 100X 2moravides coins (100X2:200) would have their coins re-stamped as IV Maravides, thus their face value increased to 400 and that person would have 200 Maravides refunded in the form of 50 coins (50X4:200) and the remaining 50 coins going directly to the Treasury.This procedure, no doubt, caused an inflation process and a short term price hike due to the newly enhanced value of the circulating currency.To mitigate this, the Crown reserved the right, after a prudent period of time, to return the coins to their original values, a deflation process which clearly provoked bad feelings throughout the industry and general public discontent to see their money devalued.As it had become apparent they were also very easy to forge, it was decided to withdraw all re-stamped coinage in 1660 and commence a complete new issue by a different production method.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
COIN
A copper alloy post-medieval Spanish…
-
COIN
Copper alloy 8 maravedis of…
-
COIN
Copper alloy 4 maravedis resellado,…
-
COIN
A 17th century copper alloy…
-
COIN
A post-Medieval copper-alloy 8-maravedis of…
-
COIN
A complete and worn post-Medieval…
-
COIN
A post-medieval copper-alloy4-maravedis of either…
-
COIN
Incomplete copper alloy 8 maravedis…
-
COIN
A complete copper alloy post-medieval…
-
COIN
Copper alloy Spanish coin, either…
|