Official "Post A Counterstamp" Thread....

Did you know that one of the most valuable U.S. coins, listed in the Red Book and selling for three million dollars or more, is damaged? (See end of my reply for the answer)

I doubt that most coin collectors will give you the same answer to that question. I largely collect nineteenth century counterstamps with U.S. marks. I tend to avoid random, maverick stamps and principally seek ones that "talk" to me, telling me who stamped them, when, where and why. What collector hasn't looked at a coin at some time or another and not wondered, "If this coin could only talk!" Many a counterstamped coin does just that (See my other postings - many dozens of them).

My avatar is is a gunsmith counterstamp that matches the mark of Lemuel Pomeroy. Many early counterstamps were issued by craftsmen like silversmiths and inventors. Patentees also stamped coins, as did early photographers, toolmakers and hundreds of other professions. I love solving a mystery, and I've been able to attribute literally hundreds of counterstamps for over three decades now. It's a challenge that I much enjoy. Some individual attributions have taken me years, yet there's a constant flow of added resources on the internet, helping me solve the puzzles.

The boiled-down answer, relative to the appeal of what many see as "damaged" coins, is that I see them as being far more than that. My perspective is a totally different paradigm. Simply put, they provide mystery and history, telling us about the folks and times they circulated in early America.

Answer .... noolbuoD rehsarB .... (read backwards)

See pages 9, 13, 14, 15, 18 and 22 in this thread for a few of my more interesting counterstamps. These offer some history and insight as to attribution.

Excellent answer, ExoGuy.

I had no idea there were counterstamps out there that had so much information involved with them. Those were Spectacular. What an eye opener for me, Thank You ExoGuy.

Very nice, 1c5d7n5m!

I have a good friend who lives in Chicago. His initials are A.E.L. Me thinks he will be getting a gift from me sometime soon.