Counterstamped Stone Mountain

I split your post out to its own thread

I hope there is a interesting story behind the counter stamp

Why is it when I saw Stone Mountain I knew Fuzzy would be here?

That's pretty cool and that half has seen some circulation!

Thanks for the info nickelsearcher! You learn something every day.

Your Stone Mountain counterstamp is definitely more an exception than the norm.

Before I continue, are there markings of any kind on the obverse? I assuming not since you did not include an image, but I thought I would ask to make sure.

Your "number only" counterstamp is not unique among the coins known, but it is certainly among just a few that have been reported w/o a state abbreviation. As it falls into the category of "Issuer Unknown" it will be very difficult to determine a meaning for the counterstamped number. Your piece is similar to a "maverick" token - i.e., a piece that doesn't feature markings that indicate its issuing location and therefore one that can't easily be attributed.

Maybe it is a coin that was intended to have a state abbreviation, but the state abbreviation was left off by mistake. Numbers in the 200s and above are known for the majority of the states with counterstamped coins, so it could easily have been a coin from the likes of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina or one of several other states.

Maybe it was a special request by someone who knew a state committee member that was involved with the sale/award of the counterstamped coins and wanted only a number that had special meaning to him/her. A premium might have been paid for a "stateless" coin.

In any case, if authentic, your coin is certainly worth a premium of several hundred dollars over a standard Stone Mountain half dollar but likely less of a premium than a coin with a counterstamp from a known issuer.

I would send the coin to either PCGS or NGC to ensure its authenticity - especially if you are looking to sell it.


You might find a previous post of mine of some interest: https://goccf.com/t/141523

Some information:

"Ten coins also have been reported without state designations, nine with numbers and letters and one with only a number. As Stearns noted, two halves, similarly marked 'A 167,' are felt to be unofficial or fantasy counterstamped issues. The remaining eight pieces fall into one of two varieties-coins with stamps similar to the municipal coin series, and coins with bolder strikes produced from a different set of punches (see table 5). The C, K and T coins were not known to Stearns, but knowledge of their existence has done little to explain how they might fit into the special coin series. The single letters are not sufficient to define S.C.V. camps; neither can we connect them with the letter N for Nashville Could the N for Nashville be a coincidence? We need to know more about where other letter-stamped coins surfaced.

So, more of the mystery remains to be solved. Can G.L. or S.L. be linked to the S.C.V. or scholastic honors? What of the even more cryptic letter-number combinations? In their desperation to raise money, did the association devise other ways to sell special coins, and are pieces from the S.C.V. and scholastic series yet to be discovered? What became of the other 946 pieces of the first 1,000 struck? Although we don't know the answers at this time, we do know what happened to the money raised.

TABLE 5
Counterstamped Halves without State Designations

A-167 and C-7 are suspect.

ASSOCIATION STAMP
A-167
C-7
K-24 ( ANA Museum Collection)
T-1, T-34
42

BOLD STAMP
N-2, N-3, N-6"1

1. The Numismatist, The Selling of the Stone Mountain Half Dollar, by William D. Hyder ( ANA 59458), and R. W. Colbert ( ANA LM 321), March 1985, p. 466-482.

I do not think so.

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