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1 Bit
| Issuer | Martinique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1770-1772 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Bit (0.01) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse of the host Spanish colonial real, retaining the characteristic two crowned hemispheres design of the Lima mint macuquina-style pillar coinage, with the two globes flanked by crowned Pillars of Hercules visible in the surviving annular field surrounding the irregular central cutout. The peripheral legend VTRA QUE VNUM is legible around the upper portion, with the Lima mint mark LMA, assayer initials JD, and date 1757 preserved along the lower margin. The design elements reflect the standard milled coinage of the Lima mint under Fernando VI. The reeded edge remains well-defined on the surviving flan. |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Lima |
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| Additional information |
The "bit" denominations of French Caribbean colonies were not purpose-struck coins but rather the product of counterstamping — Spanish colonial reales were cut, plugged, or stamped to create subsidiary currency where metropolitan coinage rarely arrived in sufficient quantity. Martinique's chronic shortage of small change in the 1770s forced local administrators to authorize these makeshift solutions, which circulated alongside Spanish, Portuguese, and British silver indiscriminately.
KM#17 is among the scarcer documented types from this intervention period, as many examples were later recalled or restruck when French colonial monetary policy tightened in the following decade.