Post A Coin Struck Over Another Coin.

Great idea for a thread!

The 1919 Italian 20 centesimi was overstruck on the 1894 issue. On this coin you can just make out the '20' of the old design on the reverse, and some of the wreath on the obverse:


Host coin:


An older example is this French Decime of Revolutionary Year 5, overstruck on the 2 Decimes, which had a very similar design. I haven't got an unaltered host coin, but I've arrowed the 'S' of 'DECIMES' and the edge of the bust from the original striking:

Nice examples!

Bank of England -- 1 dollar, 1804-1811:



These were overstruck on Spanish 8 reales coins.

United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves -- 960 reis, 1819:



You can see faint pillars on the obverse, presumable from a Mexico 8 reales coin.

France 1 ecu 1721. Overstrike on 1 ecu 1718.




This was part of a series of overstrikes and re-valuations of French coins that lasted over a couple of decades around 1700. The many and costly wars that had been going on for the better part of the 17th century and continued into the 18th, took a severe toll on the government finances. The government started playing with the value of the money, which was made easy by the fact that gold coins and large silver coins had no denomination; they were assigned a value in livres by royal decree, a value that could thus be changed at the will of the king. So, with 1 million silver ecus in the royal treasury, each valued at 5 livres, the royal finances could be improved by 1 million livres by decreeing that ecus are now worth 6 livres a piece!

To further increase the amount of money in the treasury, gold and silver coins were regularly reformed. Say you had 6 ecus, each valued at 5 livres. You (mandatorily) hand in your 30 livres to The Royal Mint. There they are overstruck with a new design and you get your 30 livres back. But, each ecu is now assigned a value of 6 livres, so you only get 5 ecus back... the 6th coin went to the treasury! With the king having absolute power given Dei Gratia, by the Grace of God (as stated on the coins themselves), it was not advisable to have a problem with that.

The 1718 issue of ecus were valued at 6 livres, even though they were 20 % lighter than the previous ecu issue valued at 5 livres. 1720-23 the issue was withdrawn and had to be handed in at a value of 6 livres a piece, be overstruck and handed back valued at 9 livres a piece.

Nice example!