Lincoln Cent with "Washington's Headquarters" reverse

I bought this off of E-bay a couple of weeks ago and thought it would interest some of you guys. The reverse of this 1975 Lincoln was counterstamped with a "Washington's Headquarters" scene by someone. The letters and design are raised from a flattened field. The seller didn't know anything about it so I did a little research. George Washington and the army wintered at Morristown, NJ from December, 1779 until June, 1780. Today the site is a National Historic Park, and is open to visitors and tour groups who can visit their museum and visitor center. There are a lot of historic landmarks to see and learn about.
As you can see, the stamp covered the entire reverse of the coin and only shows small flattened areas where the rim used to be. The obverse design is a little distorted due to the strike on the reverse but it's still all readable. I would think these were either sold or given as souvenirs at the park, but I'm only guessing. In any case, I thought it was unusual and worth posting. Thanks for looking.

Bruce

 

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great minds like to know how much???

 

I bought it for ten bucks James.

Bruce

 

wow !!! thank you

 

How do you think the date got that blown up ghost image?

 

Very interesting cent, thanks for sharing

 

Same thing happens with elongated coins.

 

Yes, but the original date appears unaltered.

 

Hmm, that's true. Maybe the material they used to lay the coin on when countermarking it was soft enough to take an impression, but firm enough to put it back on subsequent strikes.

 

I couldn't figure that one out either guys. Did you notice the shadow above the "B" and "E" in Liberty? Even though this isn't really an error coin maybe some of the characteristics are the same as on a real striking error. I would guess that this wasn't hammer struck, but was made in a coin press. Maybe some of our error experts will see this thread and comment. Thanks for all your input.

Bruce

 

Here's a similar type of counterstamp to the one I posted earlier on this thread. In case you're not familiar with the battle to locate a suitable "resting place" for the battleship New Jersey about 10 years ago, this was part of the effort to return the decommisioned ship to North Jersey from its dock in Camden. When it was decomissioned for the last time in 1991 she was fixed up and became a tourist destination that offered tours, space for social functions, and other things. Once politicians got involved, the locating of this massive ship became a political football. Camden finally won berthing rights over a site near Liberty State Park in North Jersey. The reasoning was that the ship was originally built at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard just across the Delaware River from Camden and so should be docked near her original home. In any case I thought this was a neat little coin with some nice history involved. Thanks for looking.

Bruce

 

Pretty fun looking coin, never seen a Lincoln cent like that. So is it an error coin or more of a souvenir piece?

 

Counter-stamped souvenir piece.

 

I believe it is a souvenir from Valley Forge,NJ where Washington and his troops spent some time.You put your penny in a machine turn the crank and this is how it comes out.

 

The first one would probably be a souvenir piece like Cazkaboom says, but this one is more of a "political" token as it promoted one side of the issue against the other. It's not a rolled cent (elongated) because it looks to have been struck in a press.

Bruce

 

It is good to see that NJ cent. I bought two of them years ago in the original fundraiser. I still have them somewhere. By the way - they exhibit some doubling on the obverse. I assumed (as suggested above) that the striking process left an impression in the surface the coin was resting on when sytruck, and then imparted that to subsequent strikes.

 

Thanks for your comments about the "Bring Me Home" token. What exactly is the history of these pieces and do you have any info on who struck them? I always like to know as much as possible aboutthe things in my collection. Thanks.

Bruce

 

Bingo, that is exactly what causes it. You can sometimes find fake double or tripple struck coins made using that method. Press a coin into a brass plate then turn it or use a second coin and press it in again. The impressed image in the plate acts as a die to raise a second fainter image on the coin without flattening the original detail. And now the plate will have two images in it from the two pressing and can be used to create a triple struck "error".

 

Neat counterstamp OP!

 

Thanks for the info Conder. Very interesting.

Bruce