i found this quarter a week ago and plan on spending it soon... but my curiousity prevents me from doing so... anybody know what VV6 is??? and why it was printed on this quarter?
It's been counter-marked with letter/number punches. For what reason? Who knows. People deface coins for any number of reasons.
I counterstamp lots of coins (well over a thousand and counting) with various things, but I make it easy to see what means. (Except the coins I stamp with my initials stamp - I'll let people wonder who JBK is).
Just spend it. Don't worry about why someone would waste time in life putting stuff on coins and then putting them in circulation. Keeps them off the streets at least.
I'm glad people did "waste time in life" doing stuff liek this as counterstamped coins are a whole area of collecting - the earliest ones are from ancient Rome, and the heyday in the US was in the 19th century. The practice continues and future collectors will be glad it did. Personally, I get more satisfaction from finding new and interesting counterstamps than worrying whether my MS69 slabbed coin should really be an MS70.
Back in 2004 before the presidential election I got all pumped up to go out and buy punches and put anticandidate political messages on coins but that never came about and part of the reason was that isn't it illegal to "deface" coins?
it's also technically illegal to drive 5 mph over the speed limit... but that doesnt seem to stop 90% of the population
Hmmm...I was worried that cashiers would go all crazy on me if they saw several coins with letters and messages stamped on them but if it's not illegal or atleast hardly enforced maybe I will give it a try. The only thing is what size punches to get? 1/8th or 1/16 of an inch?
Get the size that suits you - I promise it's not illegal. And as long as you don't counterstamp the coins so much that they can't readily be identified - I doubt anybody but a collector will even notice.
