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Auction: 9017 - Ancient, British & Foreign Coins & Comm Medals
Lot: 620

x Dutch East Indies, VOC, Batavia, 48 Stuivers, 23.72g, 1646, upright sword over laurel wreath within inner circle comprising rope border, inscription around with floriate scrolls above and below bataviae anno 1646, rev. monogram of United East India Company, .48.st. above, countermark crown below value, all within rope border inner circle, floriate scrolls in outer border (Scholten -; Bucknill -, KM. -), possible sea water corrosion, without tooling and in as cast condition with little or no circulation, extremely fine for the issue, unique, of the highest rarity and the only known example of the first Dollar size coin issued in the South East Asia dated 1646 Estimate £ 40,000-45,000 Until now no example of a 1646 Crown has been seen. Bucknill noted that a Crown dated 1646 was listed in the 1895 catalogue at the Batavian Museum, but some doubt has been cast as to whether such a piece ever existed as one has not been seen otherwise. Given that both Netscher and Van der Chijs, who first studied these coins, both noted Half-Crowns and Quarter Crowns dated 1646, then it is unsurprising if Crowns were also made in that year, not least as the coinage was only withdrawn nearly 10 months into 1647. The design on this coin differs slightly from the 1645 crown, a design feature which was noted by Bucknill in 1931 as being found on 24 and 12 Stuiver coins known at that time also for 1646. This suggests a new master die was made for the issue of coins dated 1646. Weight, the presence of a countermark and the edge all suggest this coin is from the original issue and neither a counterfeit or modern copy. See notes above.

Sold for
£30,000