Gibraltar - 2 Quarts 1842/1 Victoria

Over 100 years since Great Britain gained a foothold in Spain, after the War of Spanish Succession, the British mint officially produces coins for Gibraltar. Struck in denominations evolved from the Spanish system [Quarto; an Llanito or Yanito word (pronounced [jaˈnito]) and is a form of Spanish heavily laced with words from English and other languages, such as Ligurian, used in Gibraltar], the Quart may vary from the British system of Penny by weight. These were struck in copper in denominations of 2 Quarts, 1 Quart and 1/2 Quart, all of which can be seen here in the Moneta Museum. They were well used, and most, like all Gibraltar coins and tokens, are usually found well worn. Coins in the AU/Unc grades are difficult and a bit costly. Checking KM you'll see that proof issues were struck first in 1841, very rare, and that this 2 Quarts issue used repunched dies to produce circulating issues for 1842. The issue for this one year type was only 48k pieces. The coin is much better in hand than this photo, it features another beautiful portrait of a young Queen Victoria. Rare proofs were also reissued in 1860.
British coppers circulated beginning in 1842, with an informal valuation of 1 quart = 1 farthing (actually 1 quart = 11⁄12 farthings). This discrepancy was also exploited to the profit of army officers making payments to troops.
In 1842, coins were issued in ½, 1 and 2 quarts denominations. A total of 387,072 quarts worth of coins: were issued (equal to 2016 dollars or £436 16s), allowing soldiers wages to be paid in quarts rather than pence. Other coins continued to circulate, however, until 1872. In that year, the Spanish currency became the sole legal tender in Gibraltar.[1] In 1898, the Spanish–American War made the Spanish peseta drop alarmingly and the pound was introduced as the sole currency of Gibraltar, initially in the form of British coins and banknotes. [Wikipedia: Gibraltar Real]
READ or DOWNLOAD some of the best information available on the early Token series of Gibraltar at this: /library/Gibraltar%20Tokens.pdf
Here is the amazing story of the Siege of Gibraltar and some of the tokens involved: [ link ]
And more at this Gibraltar Mint site: [ link ]