Found these pictures from a long ago visit to the Tower of London. Thought some here might enjoy them.
Was there a reason for them to display Spanish and American coins together? Especially with the counterstamp marks?
I wondered that at first too but I am betting it is more a display of Royal counterstamps than it is a display of coins.... But man, those are sure some cool coins.
These various 'foreign' coins of good silver were countermarked to make them current for circulation as 5/- (Crown) and fractional thereof coins during a severe shortage of coin in the UK in the later 18th-early 19th centuries. Eventually, the 1804 (static-date) Bank of England Dollars were intended to replace the emergency countermark issues.
