1854 One Cent Strange Stamping Both Sides

I can make ASKINS. I think the other two letter are H H or II II

to the CCF!

A little surprised that chafemasterj hasn't made a visit to this thread yet. His collection of counter stamped cents is very impressive.

They really put the sledgehammer to it!

It's the first I've ever heard of that term, counter stamp. Yes they certainly put a deep name/marking into it. Would like to know what meant. Did it help a business, promotion, family etc.

to the CCF

This counterstamp looks to me like H.HASKINS. Checking some of my reference books, I found a few listings for guys named Haskins, but none have the "H" initial. This one appears to be an unlisted maverick. I'll check out some other resources I use and do a follow-up post if I find anything.

Having been researching counterstamps for over forty years now, I've found that surnames, preceded by but a single initial or none at all, tend to be more difficult to attribute. Henry and Hiram were two of the more prevalent first names that commenced with the letter H.

The small size of the font, being under 2mm, suggests to me that this Haskins quite possibly produced and perhaps stamped small products. Blacksmiths and many toolmakers tended to use much larger and oftentimes crude stamps in their work. This Haskins, whoever he was, likely worked on small metal products .... my take, for what it's worth.

The 1850's decade was the heyday of this counterstamp fad. It's been estimated that perhaps 10% of the coins then in circulation were counterstamped. I've found some contemporary newspaper articles wherein folks complained about receiving these damaged coins in trade. The advent of the Civil War, what with the hoarding of money and issuance of emergency currency (tokens, scrip, encased postage, etc.) brought the counterstamping frenzy to a virtual standstill. While the fad resurfaced after the war, it never approached the level attained in the 1850's.

On the plus side, for collectors like me, the issuers of these early coins can often be traced, resulting in surprising history lessons during the process. Anyone interested can check out some of my posts to learn more about this little known and little explored numismatic avenue. IMHO, every coin collection should contain at least one early counterstamp that tells this numismatic story.




IMHO, given the low grade of this common date cent, the c/s helps. There ate collectors out there, possibly some even named Haskins, who like the challenge of solving numismatic mysteries. I'm seeing maverick c/s's like this one, selling for $20-$30 in today's market.

This is certainly possible, and our OP might perhaps to research this angle. To me, doing the research is what makes counterstamps fun to collect. In today's world, we have the benefit of new information coming online, daily. Back in the 1980-90's, I would travel to distant libraries in order to access their research tools. Nowadays, my trip is simply to a keyboard.