Merchant Countermarks

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Merchant Countermarked Dollars

Merchant Countermarked Dollars of the Late 18th & Early 19th Centuries.

Eric C Hodge

During the latter half of the eighteenth century, fluctuations in the gold-silver ratio, coupled with the financial strain of foreign wars, especially during the Napoleonic period, helped to bring on a severe dearth of silver coin in Great Britain. Very few silver coins were minted in the sixty five years between 1751 and 1816, though gold was plentiful enough.

It was not that there was a shortage of silver, far from it. There were plenty of Spanish American silver dollar sized coins available as bullion. The lack of coins in Great Britain was solely due to the inability of the Royal Mint to afford the purchase of silver for recoinage. By an order issued in 1601, the Mint could only purchase silver at 5s 2d an ounce, generally below the current market price in the mid to late 18th century. Finally the New Coinage of crowns to sixpences, initiated in 1816-1818, saw the beginning of the end for the desperate need of private silver issues in Great Britain.

The earliest and longest-lived attempt to provide a silver medium of exchange during those difficult years was the stamping of private tradesmen’s countermarks on Spanish dollars and their fractions. French coins were used for a few issues and occasionally another foreign crown or dollar sized coin was marked. Weekly quotations were published on the London bullion market, throughout the eighteenth and into the nineteenth century, for Spanish American dollars, so that these could be purchased by any trader for use in his business. To avoid the withdrawal and melting of countermarked tokens, their stamped valuations obviously had to be higher than their bullion value, but not so high as to invite extensive counterfeiting with false punches.

Problems for the issuers arose when the market price fluctuated by more than a few pence. A drop would bring on a flood of demands for redemption of the tokens at their countermarked value. A significant rise would mean the countermarked tokens could be sold, more profitably, back into the bullion market. In either case, the issuer would not want to reissue redeemed tokens at their original countermarked valuation.

One solution was melting, another was to repunch a revised value on the coin (Figs 1 & 9) and a further option was to cancel the coin countermarked value and issuer’s name, with either a grille pattern or by individual punch marks. (Fig 2)

The need for an increased supply of silver coinage was exacerbated by the Industrial Revolution. The workers had to be paid. Initially this could be in kind, but this created extra burdens on the employers. Much better to pay in cash, and let the workers fend for themselves. Slowly the idea of works’ shops was implemented, first to make extra money from the workers, but latterly as a genuine attempt by philanthropic leaders of industry to improve the lot of the lower classes.

Fig 1

Cromford Obverse

Fig 2

Muir Obverse

Fig 9

Catrine Obverse

Hover your cursor to

see the coins in detail

Production of one’s own currency, therefore, had its benefits. One could either tie the worker to one’s own shop, or conversely give additional benefits to the employee who used the works’ facilities. The countermarked dollars did both. They had their own intrinsic value in the silver, and also a higher value marked on them for use at the works, or as commonly became standard, in the surrounding community that survived from, and supported, local business.

The most prolific issues came from Scotland. Of the approximately seventy known business issuers of countermarked dollars, over 85% were in Scotland, one quarter being in the cotton trade. Of the remaining, known, Scottish countermarked dollars, over 50% are from the cotton trade. Why was this?

There is no definitive answer to this question because there are so few records about countermarked dollars and also about the businesses that issued them. However the answer seems to lie in a mix of: distance from London, so even fewer silver coins from an already short supply; a desire to retain labour attracted from the Highlands or agriculture in general, to factory conditions; a ready supply of dollars, perhaps from the tobacco and other trades to America and the Caribbean developed from Glasgow; some of the larger issuing businesses being controlled by the same family, the Finlays; a realisation how effective these issues were, coupled with the difficulty of the Government in London to exercise its legislative powers in Scotland; the slower use of steam power driving the cotton factories into the city.

In England, it was the use of steam power, over water power, that gave rise to the enormous growth of the cotton trade in Manchester which, using its own banking system and paper money, precluded the necessity of countermarked dollars. No issuers are known for Manchester.

The remaining issuers were mainly grocers and other merchant traders, and some banking concerns. The merchant traders would, of course, benefit greatly from their ability to give change for gold, where this was offered, ensuring continued future trade.

Of the six recorded English issuers, three were in the cotton trade: Revolution Mill, Cromford Mill and Cark Cotton Works.

The Revolution Mill countermark is purely an ampersand with a crown above it. (Fig 3) There is no mark of value and no indication of the issuer. The details would have probably remained unknown, were it not for Sarah Sophia Banks, (sister of Sir Joseph Banks), whose collection of coins was bequeathed to the British Museum, together with note books and manuscripts detailing the coins and their sources. Under the details of the Ampersand & Crown was written ‘Spanish dollar stamped for circulation at the Revolution Mill in East Retford Notts 1794’, 1794 being the date she acquired it.

Fig 3

Revolution Obverse

An additional facet to the collecting of this series is, due to the lack of contemporary records, it is not possible to assert what is genuine and what is not. Experience counts for a lot but also provenance is very important in ascertaining how long certain marks have been known. Revolution Mill provides a perfect example. About ten genuine countermarks are known, (per the Bank’s example), punched in front of the bust. There are, however, three ‘counterfeits’ known with a similar stamp, but much thicker and heavier-looking, stamped on the bust. The ‘counterfeit’ may have been contemporary, but is believed to be a post Second World War concoction for the collectors’ market.

Another English countermark is from Cromford in Derbyshire. (Fig 1A enlarged from Fig 1). Sir Richard Arkwright was an influential figure in the development of the English cotton spinning industry. Not only did the Arkwrights build the mill at Cromford, but they also built the town to accommodate their workers. The surviving countermarks are of two valuations of 4/9 and 5/-. More than half the 4/9 host coins are dated before 1800, and all before 1811, suggesting an issue period from about 1790 to 1810, after which the bullion price of dollars generally remained at or above five shillings until mid 1815. Of the 5/- issues, there are at least six where the 5/- punch is believed to be over 4/9 (Fig 1) indicating a sensible re-use of coins and showing that at least some of the 5/- tokens came after the 4/9. It is likely that the 5/- issues were prepared about 1815.

Fig 1A

Cromford Countermark

Another English cotton issue is that from the Cark Cotton Works. (Figs 4 & 5) This is an unusual issue as the obverse of the coin has the business name, whereas the reverse of the coin has the issue value, in words and not numbers, which would tend to indicate an early issue date when new ideas were being tested. Cark is a small village near Cartmel in the southern Lake District. There are eleven tokens known, all to the value of 4/6. The obverse countermark reads Cark Cotton Works 1787, and as ten of the tokens are dated 1785 and earlier, with the eleventh dated 1792, it would tend to confirm an early issue up to the mid 1790’s. It is presumed that 1787 is the date the tokens were first issued.

We now travel to Scotland to look at a selection of the tokens issued by the burgeoning industrial concerns around Glasgow. One of the biggest of these businesses was the Lanark Mills situated 25 miles south east of Glasgow. New Lanark was a completely new and self contained village. In the 1780’s Arkwright visited Scotland and teamed up with David Dale, a Scottish banker, to build the Lanark Mills, using Arkwright’s patents and Dale’s money.

The Lanark Mills countermarked tokens are the most prolific in the entire merchant series. (Fig 6) They are known for values of 5/-, 4/9, 4/6 and 2/6. The 2/6 tokens are on French half-écus. No company records remain to help in the sequencing of the various issues, so it is assumed, from the increasing value of silver bullion throughout most of this period, that the tokens were made in ascending order of value, and this appears justified by comparing the dates of the host coins. However enough of the various tokens remain for it to be evident that special privy marks, star and lozenge, were also in use, presumably to help control the issues and the accounting for them. The marks appear to be made of two punches, one for the named outer ring, and the other for the value. There are quite a few anomalies with these issues and a lot of further research is still required. The 5/- issues are the most common of all the countermarked series.

Fig 5

Cark Reverse

Fig 4

Cark Obverse

Fig 6

Lanark Obverse

The Industrial Revolution was fuelled by a number of factors, but it was oiled with money. Banks and finance were important ingredients in the overall mix that increased the wealth of the businessmen and owners of the industrial concerns. So it is no surprise to find that two banks issued merchant countermarked dollars, the Thistle Bank and the Glasgow Bank.

The Thistle Bank countermarked dollars are known in three values, 4/9, 5/- and 6/-. Two separate punches are known for the 4/9 value. One of these punches was used in conjunction with a reverse punch of a thistle. (Figs 7 & 8) The other 4/9 punch was applied without the reverse thistle. All the 5/- and 6/- punches were applied with a reverse thistle mark, and this thistle was always in the upright position with its flower head at 12 o’clock. However, with the 4/9 value with thistle, the thistle is always sideways with its flower head to 9 o’clock.

There were many other concerns involved with all aspects of cotton spinning and weaving and one of the most interesting, when looked at from the angle of countermarked dollars, is the Catrine Cotton Works. Catrine was owned by the Finlay family as was Deanston Cotton Mill and Ballindalloch Cotton Works, both countermarked dollar issuers. Catrine had a variety of values being 6/6, 5/6, 5/- and 4/9 but the strange and unique factor with these countermarks is that they are all individually numbered. (Fig 9 and the enlarged number Fig 9A)

The estimated order of issue of the countermarks is 4/9, 5/6 punched over 4/9, 5/-, 6/6 and 5/- again, punched over 6/6. However even though the marks are individually numbered, these do not appear to be in any sequence, certainly not in the order of issue. The 5/- issue is also interesting because there are two types, one in an oval and one in a circle. The oval shape is also odd because in all three legible examples, the stop after the five appears to be over a scraped area, which seems to have originally had a three. No Catrine tokens are known for 5/3, so the punch may have been altered to 5/- before any were struck. The lowest number in the series is 471, on 5/-, with the highest being 4826, on 4/9. So quite a confused and interesting issue, if only original records could be found.

Fig 8

Thistle Bank Reverse

Fig 7

Thistle Bank Obverse

Fig 9

Catrine Obverse

Fig 9A

Catrine Serial Number

Another Scottish cotton concern that issued countermarked dollars was the Rothsay Cotton Works. Rothsay lies about forty miles southwest of Glasgow at the head of a bay on the Island of Bute.

The Rothsay Mills tokens are quite varied and unusually this was the only concern that countermarked cut Spanish dollars to the values of 2/6, 2/4 and 1/8. (Fig 10) The dollars were marked in two denominations of 5/- and 4/6. (Fig 11)

Only one of the 5/- value is known, now with Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The 4/6 values are found in two distinct forms, one with a small privy punch-mark below the shield on the reverse (Fig 12), the other without this mark. The actual 4/6 countermark reads ‘Rothsay Cotton Works 4/6 1820’. This date would suggest that 1820 was the initial date of issue.

Fig 12

Rothsay Reverse

Fig 11

Rothsay Obverse

Fig 10

Rothsay Cut Piece

Another countermark, using both an obverse and a reverse mark, was that for J. Muir, manufacturer, Paisley. (Fig 2) The reverse mark was the Prince of Wales feathers bearing the motto 'Ich Dien' (Fig 13) With such a common Scottish name, it is difficult to allocate this mark with ease. It is currently linked to a family who worked as plaid merchants and shawl and muslin manufacturers. Maybe the reverse mark of the Prince of Wales feathers was somehow linked to the designs used in the plaid or shawl businesses. There are about nineteen of these coins known and at least nine of them have been cancelled, but with different cancellation marks. Some are cancelled with a grille pattern, whilst others are marked with digs or controlled pear-shaped punches (Fig 2), or cut marks.

Fig 2

Muir Obverse

Fig 13

Muir Reverse

Another issuer is the firm of McFie Lindsay & Co. Greenock, listed as being in the wholesale grocery trade between 1815 and 1834. One of their tokens is severely double-struck (Fig 14) a very rare occurrence in the tradesmen’s countermarked series. It is believed the issue dates from around the early 1820s, several years before their withdrawal, as reported in the Greenock Advertiser of the 29th August 1828. ‘The subscribers will thank those persons holding the Spanish dollars issued by them at 4/6 to send them in to their place of business as early as convenient to be exchanged, silver being now so plenty that they are no longer required for the convenience of trade. MacFie (sic) Lindsay & Co.’ This advert appeared a good twelve years after the recoinage of 1816!

In this short article we have touched only the surface of this fascinating subject. There is so much research still to do that the rarity of the coins themselves is of secondary importance to the seeking of information. A dream subject for the economic and social historian, the tokens constituted a vital link between the industrialists and the local communities in which they operated and also that they served. It required a set of most unusual circumstances for them to exist. These, in turn, allowed the countermarked coins to flourish. It required war, it required inventions, it required raw materials, it required men of vision, it required great markets, it required large labour forces, but most of all and truly most bizarrely, it required the inability of the Royal Mint to coin silver. Upon such small matters can history be made.

Fig 14

McFie Obverse