July 23, 2025
VALUABLE SPANISH COINS.
Two of Carlos IV Design Owned
by City Employes.
There are two men in the city clerk's office, William Scoville, sergeant-at-arms of the lower house, and Ethelbert Allen, a deputy city clerk, each with a Spanish coin of the eighteenth century design and one of them coined during the reign of Carlos IV.
Scoville turned up with his doubloon or whatever it is about the size of a silver dollar, two days ago, having bought it from a tramp. Allen, on looking at it, dug up its mate, which he had owned for five years, but which had been in his family since his grandfather's youth, early in the last century.
The coins were alike generally, but different in detail. Allen's heirloom has on it "Carlos IV," while Scoville's coin has on it "Carolus IIII," like the numeral on a watch handle. Allen's coin is dated 1790 and Scoville's 1907.
Allen's rings like silver, and Scoville's like a piece of hard putty. This peculiarity may be explained by the small Chinese characters stamped upon the Scoville coin. Chinese like Western silver money. At present they use Mexican coins. In earlier times they used Spanish dollars.
Anything that looked like money was money. So the Spanish "dollars" of the Scoville type were coined by the ton, of pure pewter, and passed current in China. To prove them genuine, the Chinese put their own stamps on them.
Collectors regard these "phoney" coins as more valuable than the real article.
Labels: city hall, Kansas City council
