Commems Collection Classic: 1925 Stone Mountain Counterstamp - Fraud?

I was contacted recently by a CCF member who was offered a counterstamped Stone Mountain Half Dollar that caused him to pause. The coin in question was one marked "TENN 185" and he had it recorded as one that I owned.

The seller claimed the coin was in a PCGS holder, but would not provide images of the coin in the holder. The seller did provide coin images that the CCF member believed were pulled from my CCF post.

Concerned that the seller might have been attempting a scam, the member contacted me and asked if I still owned the coin. I let him know that I did and had pulled it out to confirm.

Counterstamped Stone Mountain half dollars can be counterfeited fairly easily - a set of properly-sized metal letter/number punches can create reasonably good fakes if one knows what they are doing. If you are considering the purchase of one of these interesting coins, and you're not 100% sure about what you are buying, I strongly recommend having it looked at by a knowledgeable dealer/collector before making an expensive mistake. Education is the key!

1925 Stone Mountain Memorial with "TENN 185" Counterstamp



Here's a link to my original post about this coin:

- 1925 Stone Mountain "Tenn" Counterstamp