From Max A. Keech MNA Journal March 2015 indicating this insurgent Chieftain Late 1812-1813 Jose Maria Liceaga began counterstamping provisional/necessity issues under his own name. Keech indicates about ten different sets are known - from my library we have on 1811 LVO Zacatecas 8R's: JML-Ve,Sra,Sm,Ds,V,SM. On 1813 GoJJ we see Sca and PG. Keech ask - CAN YOU SOLVE THIS PUZZLE? See here:
https://www.archive.org/stream/brit...263/mode/1upThis article by Eric C. Hodge - Silver Marks on Merchant Countermark Silver Coins. We see 3-4 digit numbers acting as control marks but more importantly acting possibly as an anti-counterfeiting device. It has been suggested to me from one collector that these may be mint master initials or different assayers but for this ONE LOCATION? & short duration issue period (late 1812-1813) does ten different subsets really fit this mold? I think not - we are also under the current stigma that by now one of these currently unknown ten identifiers below his initials J.M.L. would have surfaced from previous researchers. I understand this argument makes it easy as Hodge indicates and as with most older Privy marks we have seen like on Charles I Gold coinage or the recent LETTERS discussed by Mark Sportack on the Harrington British farthings (The C4 Newsletter - Winter 2017 - Lord Harrington's Patent Farthings: The Earliest Colonial Coinage) used in the colony of Virginia these all IMO fall under the same umbrella as J.M.L. subscript counterstamps as privy marks. However - specifically for these J.M.L. subscript Privy marks? were used for production control (I doubt it due to the short striking period and produced by a revolutionary individual), signature of a assayer or mint master (unlikely due to its short striking period and singular location - ten assayers?) or an anti-counterfeiting device (most likely IMO).
An example J.M.L. counterstamp:
https://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?...7&lot=454044A privy mark as an anti-counterfeiting device to easily spot replicas or copies on these singular counterstamp.
Your thoughts Ralf B. ?
John Lorenzo
Numismatist
United States
Posted 02/18/2018 10:45 am
