Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;BRandM, post: 1098419, member: 22729&quot;]This counterstamp is almost certainly a fantasy dougsmit. It appears to be a modern fake made to deceive those who don&#039;t know what to look for in a genuine piece. Several things jump out at me that tells me it&#039;s a fantasy.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>1. The lettering is all wrong. The style and &quot;look&quot; of it aren&#039;t period. Genarally, because of the softer steel used to make punches during that time, stamps always had a mushy and indistinct look about then. Also letters with out serifs were not commonly used then. </p><p>2. The Large Cents rarely circulated outside of the eastern seaboard, so any stamp from the west or midwest would typically appear on a U.S. or Spanish silver coin.</p><p>3. Fantasy pieces almost without exception use individual letter punches, not prepared stamps. They&#039;re too expensive to make so someone can stamp off a few pieces to sell to the unaware. The crude look of the stamp&#039;s application (uneven letters, double-striking, etc.) are purposely done to make it appear old and genuine. It&#039;s actually fairly easy to apply a caption with individual punches and make it look like a prepared punch. I&#039;ve actually tried it, it&#039;s not that hard.</p><p>4. Any stamp with a legend that places its origin in a &quot;romantic&quot; locale or historical period raises a red flag. They include the Old West, Civil War (especially the Confereracy) Territories (like this one), Wells Fargo, Hawaii, etc.</p><p>&nbsp;As far as determining the period a counterstamp was applied to a coin, wear patterns are the best indicator. In your piece the coin is heavily worn, but the stamp really shows no wear. It was applied many years after the coin stopped circulating. After having said all that, I think the coin is still neat...only not real.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Bruce[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in