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Historical Background
Scotland. Circular countermark “J&A.MUIR✶GREENOCK✶4/6”, very well struck, though slightly weak on the right side, applied circa 1823 to the obverse of an 1821-M 8 reales struck in Guatemala under the reign of Ferdinand VII, for circulation at a value of 4 shillings and 6 pence. (Manville-59). (KM-CC56). (Hodge-059S.024a, this specimen).
According to Eric Hodge, author of several studies on these countermarks, only 23 specimens are known, eight of them preserved in museums.
Attractive cabinet toning. Very rare, especially on a Guatemala host coin, and with an exceptional pedigree.
Slabbed by PCGS as VF Details, Scratch. The finest graded specimen in the PCGS census.
Published in SCMB “Spink Coin & Medal Bulletin”, April 1950, no. 5323;
Published in SCMB “Spink Coin & Medal Bulletin”, April 1952, no. 7309;
Ex J. J. Pittman Collection, David Akers Auction, Florida (06-08/08/1999), lot 3999b.
Issued by James and Andrew Muir, haberdashers and straw hat manufacturers established in Greenock. This private countermark was applied approximately between 1820 and 1824, in a context of localized shortage of small silver for daily commerce. During those years, the Muir brothers greatly expanded their hat-making and fashion goods business, resorting, like other British merchants of the period, to countermarking foreign silver coinage in order to facilitate local payments and transactions.
The issue ceased to be necessary around 1825, when the stabilization of British currency and the increased availability of official Bank of England silver brought about the disappearance of this type of private countermark. Est...4000,00.
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