Just wanted to show off something a little different I picked up, and also decided not to do a GTG on it. This is a 1936 Cleveland Commemorative that was counterstamped at the 1997 ANA show held in Cleveland. The Cleveland Commem is quite common, quite boring (IMO), isn't typically attractive when toned, and really rates way down on my list of favorite commemoratives. So as a commemorative collector, when I saw this, it caught my eye as something out of the ordinary, and just really wanted it to spice things up. For those of you unfamiliar with the coin, it was struck for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the city of Cleveland Ohio to coincide with the Great Lakes Exposition held on the shore of Lake Erie. About the only interesting thing about the coin is the reverse design for its creation of perspective on the surface of a flat coin. Even though dated 1936, they weren't minted and released until 1937. This was fairly common through the early commemorative series, where coins were pre- or post-dated to coincide with certain events or anniversaries. A total of 50,030 Clevelands were minted (which is about half the number of 1893-S Morgans minted to put it into perspective). As for the counterstamp, I haven't done a lot of research yet, but I doubt there are more then a couple hundred (or less) out there. If any of you have any info on it or the 1997 ANA event, please add as much as you feel inclined. Also, posting of your Cleveland Commemorative is welcome!
It's cool that you got that one. I was watching it but decided not to bid in the end. The Cleveland is known for quite a few counterstamps. I could not find much information on the 1997. I used to own the better known one-1941 Western Reserve Numismatic Club shown below. Here is an old thread (2003) about these: https://forums.collectors.com/discu...out-commem-guys-cleveland-w-1941-counterstamp And a bit of info from PCGS: "In 1941 the Western Reserve Numismatic Club in Cleveland applied counterstamp dies to the obverse and reverse of 100 specimens of 1936 Cleveland half dollars, an observation of the 20th anniversary of the collecting group, 1921-1941. These were immediately popular and caused interest whenever they were subsequently offered for sale. In 1971 the same organization celebrated the 50th anniversary and had a single counterstamp die made, with a portrait captioned MOSES CLEVELAND, forgetting that the founder of the city spelled his name as Cleaveland! Only a dozen or so 1936 Cleveland half dollars were stamped in 1971."
@ddddd the Western Reserve is the tops of the Cleveland ctsp's. As much as I might want one, the cost of those is always prohibitive as I'm not a ctsp collector, and not overly fond of the coin. I think the last one went for close to $1k IIRC.
They are pricey. I bought and sold mine for quite a bit less but most people do ask a ton for them. I'm not overly fond of the coin either, so it was an easy decision to sell it.
I've got a few more things that are in the works. I'll post them here when they arrive. Until then, there's this one I stumbled across earlier this year. Z
The Money Tree was a Cleveland-based partnership of Myron Xenos and Ken Lowe. They sold numismatic books and published a very entertaining journal titled Out on a Limb. They had the coins counterstamped when the ANA Midwinter Convention (as it was called back then) was in Cleveland. I attended that event, but I didn't obtain any of the counterstamped coins. Ken Lowe passed away prematurely just the following year, and that's when the business and journal ceased.
I finally got around to taking photos of my own. And I have a couple more counterstamp / overstrike pieces on their way to me. In order not to jinx the delivery, I'll save the reveal until they arrive. My photos of the 100th Anniversary Cleveland C/S. Z . .
That was counterstamped with the dies for the Jefferson Nickels Club's reproduction of Felix Schlag's original design. These were sold in both PR and MS formats about 20 years ago, and many were slabbed by SEGS.
