Puerto Rico, as a colony of Spain, received its circulating coinage from shipments directly from Madrid, Spain and various Spanish-Colonial Mints in the Americas prior to 1881. One such coin is this 1880 gold 25 Pesetas: http://imagedb.coinarchives.com/img/ubs/070/00932q00.jpg Another is this 1878 Gold 10 Pesetas: http://imagedb.coinarchives.com/img/ubs/070/00947q00.jpg And here's (I hope you enjoy) a collection of silver coins: http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=489926&AucID=359&Lot=14129 1880 was the last year Puerto Rico received Spanish Colonial Coins. What to do? In 1884, a number of foreign coins were countermarked with a fleur-de-lis by the Customs House of Puerto Rico as an athentication mark for circulation on the Islands. Readily available Spanish 5 and 10 Centimos coins and Pesos, as well as, 2, 4, and 8 Reales coins, found themselves with awell-struck fleur-de-lis incused on one of its surfaces. Here's a photo (courtesy Coin Archives amd Heritage coins) of a holed Mexico Mint 1873 Go S Balance Scale Peso with an incused fleur-de-lis countermark on it: http://imagedb.coinarchives.com/img/heritage/378/image14339.jpg During 1884 United States coins, including 20 Cent pieces, Quarters, Halves, and Dollars also went through the "counterstamp" machinations of the Puerto Rico Customs House. Here's a photo of a countermarked U.S. 1832 Half Dollar: http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=70766&AucID=56&Lot=1247 All countermarked coins remained in circulation until 1894 when most were redeemed by the Puerto Rican banks. In 1895, silver 20 centavos and 1 peso coins were introduced by Puerto Rico itself, followed in 1896 by silver 5, 10 and 40 centavos. Here's some photos courtesy of Don's World Coin Gallery (dated 1896): http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coin.php?image=nmc/pue-5c896&desc=Puerto%20Rico%20km20%205%20Centavos%20(1896) http://worldcoingallery.com/countri...0c896&desc=Puerto Rico km21 10 Centavos (1896) http://worldcoingallery.com/countri...0c896&desc=Puerto Rico km23 40 Centavos (1896) And the following photos courtesy of Coin Archives: http://imagedb.coinarchives.com/img/goldberg/047/image03045.jpg Notice the 1 peso coins bear the denomination as "1 PESO = 5 Spanish Pesetas." And here's an 1895 1 Peso: http://imagedb.coinarchives.com/img/ponterio/146/image02303.jpg The peso was replaced by the U. S. Dollar at par, following Puerto Rico's transfer to the United States in 1898. Hope you enjoyed this trivia on "numismatic" history... Clinker
a very interesting bit of history. i never would have thought collecting holed coins like this would be acceptable, but it must be. These coins were holder for jewelry, they were holed as a way to show they were allowed to be circulated... interesting
nickelman: Thanks for the positive comment. Daggarjon: During my research for this article, I found other photos of holed coins nearing Puerto Rico's fleur-de-lis overstamp and many of the same coins without the hole. Clinker
