SAINT THOMAS & PRINCE. St. Thomas & Prince Island - Costa Rica - Peru. 2 Reales, ND (1854). PCGS FINE-12 Gold Shield; Countermark: VF Details.2.78 gms. KM-not listed; Gomes-P5.22 (for non-Portuguese host only); Vaz-not listed. Issued by decree of 3 November 1854. Portuguese crown countermark applied to reverse of a 1731-L N Peru 1 Real of Philip V with previous Costa Rica 1846 Type IV bi-facial countermark. strongEXTREMELY /strongstrongRARE/strong host coin/countermark combination and as such probably strongUNIQUE/strong. The crown countermark is slightly uneven, but well applied with good definition of the details. The Costa Rica Type IV countermark is somewhat weakly applied with about a third of the design missing, though with a full four digit date "1846" on the cross side of the original host coin. The original host itself exhibits a full central date of "731", slightly obscured by the Costa Rican countermark with a partial date "3" on the cross side. A lovely example with beautiful cabinet tone displaying soft grey color on the tops of the devices with slate tone in the open fields and charcoal patina in the protected areas all accentuated by a mottled iridescent cobalt sheen. A highly interesting survivor that circulated for more than 120 years, traveling across the Pacific Ocean only to find its way back. Because of the host coin and Costa Rican countermark combination, some collectors and academics of Latin American numismatics believed that the crown countermark was that of the Honduran provisional government. This simply is not the case as the style of the crown is of Portuguese origins verse that of the Honduran government which employed a Spanish crown. From the Kyle Ponterio Collection.Ex: Richard Stuart Collection.
