Is it legal to counterstamp a coin?

What I would be doing would most likely not be used for re-circulation. More of a cool thing with my brand name...
Thanks for the advice! I figured it wasn't a black and white issue

 

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As long as you are not reintroducing them to circulation it is legal. (What someone else does with them is up to them.) If you were doing it to advertise your business, promote a political candidate etc and you were stamping them and sending them back into circulation to spread your message then yes it would be.

 

So, if you were to put a smiley face (like this: ) or something similar on a coin, and put it back in circulation, as long as the smiley doesn't look like a donkey or elephant, it would be legal?

 

If I stamp a coin, include it with an order as a "trinket", then that person spends it...how would the government know that I didn't purposely send it into circulation on purpose?

 

Numis-addict: exactly.

To go one step further, if you were c/stamping coins with an identifiable partisan political message but were not affiliated with the candidiate/cause, then that "might" be legal. (Some people are doing it now, and might argue it is freedom of speech).

Comma: that is the rub, as they used to say (not sure if people still use that expression??). You would be relying on your stated intentions and good faith. My guess (once again, I am not a lawyer) is that the worst case scenario is that the Secret Service would ask you to stop doing it if they felt there was an issue and if they even found out about it in the first place (I will keep my mouth shut if you give me a sample for my collection).

One other idea would be to put the coins in cardboard 2x2 holders when you hand them out - that way if any end up in circulation it will be clear that the customers were the ones who took them out of the holder to spend them.

In cases like this I go by precedent as a practical guide. Think of some of the colorized coins that have been sold as collectables: Elvis Presley (was NOT construed as marketing for his estate, etc.), Barack Obama (obviously legal when sold as an overpriced collector's item, but presumably illegal if it were created and dumped into circulation by his campaign).

If it were me, I would research various precedents and use that as a guide. (And if it were me, I would try to find a way to justify it since it is good fun to counterstamp coins).

 

Thanks JBK! Great advice

 

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