| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | Half Escudo |
| Metal Legal | Gold.875 |
| Metal XRF | Gold.871 |
| Alloy Ag%Cu | 0.76 |
| Type | Struck |
| Diameter | 15. mm |
| Thickness | mm |
| Weight Legal | 1.69 gms |
| Weight | 1.73 gms |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | |
| DieAxis | O° |
| Issue | |
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| Krause Spain #141 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Obverse : Laureate head of Ferdinand VII to right.
with legends FERDIN.VII. on left and D.G.HISP.R. on right
with year 1817 below.
Reverse : crowned oval arms in Order collar.
Mintmark Crowned M (Madrid) on left and Mint Master's initials GJ ()
The coins are mentioned by Codrington, who states
Small gold coins of Ferdinand VII somtimes appear in the bazaars.
This is a one year Type coin is not from circulation in Lanka.
Ferdinand VII (1784-1833), succeeded to the throne on 1808, March 17th by the forced abdication of his father Charles IV, but was taken prisoner to France and forced to cede the throne of Spain to Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte (1808-1813). In 1814 France was driven out and Ferdinand VII returned to Spain. His absolutist reign up to his death on 1833, Sept. 29th brought few blessings to Spain which lost most of its colonial empire in Central and South America in 1821-22.
Text from
* Ceylon Coins and Currency By H. W. Codrington. Colombo 1924
Page 170 Chapter XIII Miscellaneous: III - Spanish
The coin was scanned at 600dpi and the images are displayed at 300dpi.
In Krause the oval arms description for this coin as for the
KM Spain #425 coin of 1786-1788 does not match the image illustrated.
The design on coin shown above does however match illustrations in other more
specialized catalogs of Spanish coins.
The F-aVF condition coins were purchased in February 1999 on ebay,
from a dealer who illustrated auction listing with a higher grade coin.
Beware of this kind of switch and E-mail confirmation that the image
of coin shown is the coin on Auction