Maria Theresa Thaler Counter Marked Help

I hope you didn't pay too much for it.( Opps I just saw how much you paid) You have just purchased a WND ( Weapon of numismatic destruction; which is the title of an article I am writing on this very topic) All Middle eastern/east Coast of Africa counter-marks, with the exception of Mozambique, on Maria Theresa Thalers (MTT)are fakes ( Spurious is a Euphemism for fake). I repeat they are Fakes!! There is another numismatic myth that some use... that the marks represent those that would have been used ( fantasy counter-marks) that Myth was a speculation on the part of an American Dealer unfortunately that speculation has become "fact" with repetition. What that dealer didn't know:

The MTT was distributed across the middle east, East Coast of Africa, Sudan, Ethiopia, and sub Saharan Africa by the Omani Trading Empire. The coin became well known and people became very aware of its value. Schroffs( money changers) would value the coins by weight. Schroffs were profit driven so any MTT ( and any other silver dollar sized silver coin) with any damage( even dirt) would be valued at a considerable discount on its actual silver content. Schroffs across the region would look for any excuse to pay low rates for the coins. Such damaged coins would be collected up and shipped, by the schroffs from all parts of the region to India where they would be melted down as scrap. This resulted in every day people across the region refusing to accept damaged coins. I have multiple documented examples of this ranging from Basra, Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan, Timbuctu, and Zanzibar.

Mozambique is the only state to actually have been confirmed as counter-marking MTT they did it on two separate occasions ( in the same month) with disastrous results for the Mozambique treasury. All the countermarked MTT were only accepted at prices well below the silver content. { The problem today is there are many more Fake Mozambique countermarked MTT than were produce at the time.}

It was well known in the middle east by all rulers that counter-marking the coins would decrease the value of the coins and so cause a financial loss to the state that did it. It was just not done.

I will have to check dates but it was around the 1960s that the first lot of Countermarked MTT turned up in Auction by the New York Auction House Schulman . Soon after that first Auction serious questions were asked of the consigner, who had been an oil worker in the Persian Gulf. It is suspected that the first lot of counter-marks were produced for American Oil workers in the Yemen, with the aim of defrauding collectors in the USA. If you refuse to buy Chinese Fakes you should also refuse to buy Counter-marked MTT!

There was proper counter-marking of coins in the same region, however the marks were only applied to Cupro-Nickel coins and the marks made the coins legal tender as small change. those coins can be obtained for less than US$40.00. Counter-marking was never applied to Silver coins!!

Countermarked Mtt are still being produced in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan ( including the Quaiti mark) and are being sold on ebay. A, believed to be spanish counterfeiter even published a book on countermarks ( Spanish language) in which he placed his own creations. Shockingly at least one Auction house in my part of the world treats that publication as Authoritative.

edit: If you don't have the skills to attribute an MTT to Mint and period of minting then you shouldn't even look at an MTT for anything other than its silver value.

Please these counter-marks are bad for the Hobby I am sure that Mark is not happy with what I have posted. Mark you can go to dealers who will tell you you did well however I have over ten years of experience collecting and researching the MTT and I find these counter-marked coins a numismatic travesty.

If any one is looking at an MTT for purchase (counter-marked or other wise) PM me and I will advise you before you spend good money.

I researched these some time back and I think it was 1959 that they first appeared at a Schulman auction. I own a few of the various countermarked pieces as well, though they cost me about 1/10th of the price realized in the link in the OP. Some people collect them as fantasy pieces even knowing they are not genuine period countermarks. Personally I find them interesting. They can be dangerous when collectors can't identify that they are stamped on 1930's-50's MTT restrike types and therefore could not have been in circulation during the 19th or early 20th century, as they are alleged to have been.