Greenock, James & Andrew Muir Dollar, 4/6 countermark on Mexico 1808-TH 8-Reales, VG10

19^th Century token issue, Scotland, Renfrewshire, Greenock, J. & A. Muir, value of Four Shillings and Sixpence countermark on 1808TH Mexico City Mint, Mexico, Eight Reales of King Charles IV of Spain, 4/6 at centre, beaded circles and legend surrounding, *J & A. MUIR* GREENOCK., weight 26.41g (cf.Hodge 059-007; Manville 59; Davis 103). Unevenly toned, wear to host both sides, has been slabbed and graded by NGC as VG10 for host and "XF strong" for countermark, rare with an interesting provenance.

NGC Certification 2184438-023 with Traveller Collection label.

This coin dates from the year that the J & A Muir business was founded in 1808 in William Street, Greenock, where they produced straw hats and linen.

This coin has a most intriguing provenance being hidden away in a European family collection since before World War II. The "Traveller" was a wealthy gentleman who having inherited a portion of a successful family company, made a fortune by promptly selling it and then travelled the world on what was in part an extended honeymoon for the decade between the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the outbreak of World War II. With the financial instability of the great depression and after dabbling at first with gold bullion, he decided to form an enormous collection of world gold coins from ancient to modern whilst travelling the world to see the relevant dealers in their geographical locations to find the most appropriate coins. The result was a collection of some 15,000 coins, 1,700 of which we are told are British, with all going into secure hiding as of 1940 when the nazi regime encroached on where our traveller was located. Sadly, the collector died of a stroke with the stress of the world situation at this time and the collection remained hidden away for decades, stored carefully in individual envelopes in cigar boxes within locked aluminium strongboxes, that were buried in the ground in a field at the collector's property. His wife carried the secret of the burial location for the decades following and reaching the end of her life some 50 years later divulged the secret to her only daughter, whereupon in the 1990s the family retrieved all the coins intact and secured them safely in a bank vault until it was time to sell by auction in 2025. Though we often hear of buried treasure or hoards of coins from antiquity in the ground, it is not often we hear of a sophisticated coin collection actually being buried for decades, an intriguing story to permanently associate with coins of the Traveller provenance which has been written about in newspapers and online worldwide. We are lucky enough to have secured a small number of rare British coins from this esteemed collection.

Provenance:

Most likely Spink Numismatic Circular, December 1937, item 66787 (the Traveller seems to have bought the whole listing of countermark pieces).
Ex The Traveller Collection, part 3.