A known British merchant countermark has recently been discovered on a French écu. The writer has accumulated as much information as possible to support and explain this issue. With only one example known it is not possible to be too definitive as to the reason for the countermarking. Other views are welcome to help to widen the debate as to whether it was official or otherwise.
Countermark
Jamaica ‘Type X’ Countermark – A Modern Fake – K. V. Eckardt
Again, along the recent series of Blog Posts regarding modern fakes readers should be made aware of a potentially convincing fake countermark on 8 Reale coins from Jamaica (c.1758-9). While the fabricators of these fake coins or countermarks may have some familiarity with the issues they are copying generally their knowledge is not as developed as an advanced collector/student and inevitably they get one or more aspects wrong which then is a marker for their handiwork. Numismatists must be vigilant and conduct a through investigation when a new variety makes it’s appearance in the marketplace. While legitimate contemporary material continues to be discovered, from time to time, the modern fabricator will use this route to their advantage in placing their modern material into the marketplace. The quality of modern fakes will undoubtedly improve, but I trust that ‘we’ shall be able to find that one little thing that they get wrong.
BNS Research Blog 