Help With Counterstamped 1961 Cent. | Masonic

I have one of those. Nifty lil things!

Put the coin in the same room as the camera. :D

Assuming the counterstamp is the Masons emblem (picture too small to say for sure.) it is most likely the modern version of the Mark Penny. Years go, earlier twentieth century and before, when a person joined the masons he would be given a token that listed the lodge name and number. It would have various masonic symbols on it and often a place for the recipient to engrave his name on it. There were known a "Mark Pennys" They served as an identification badge of sorts to show that you were a member of the Masons. After the mid twentieth century the practise of privately made tokens seems to have died out but but the presentation of the token to new members still remained. But rather than a token they would use these counterstamped coins. Some of them are very plain while others my use an embossing technique where the emblem is literally pushed up from behind so the it rises up out of the surface. But they still served the same purpose, a symbol to show that you were a Mason.