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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 1407282, member: 66&quot;]This isn&#039;t my field but a couple of basics.</p><p><br /></p><p>First two definitions.</p><p><br /></p><p>Counterstamp: A letter, word, phrase, symbol etc that is punched into a coin by a nonofficial source such as a private person or business for the purpose of advertising, testing a punch, or just random damage.</p><p><br /></p><p>Countermark: A letter, word, phrase, symbol etc that is punched into a coin by an official authority so as to permit the coin to pass at a revised value, or to be accepted as a legal tender in an area other than the one for which it was originally struck.</p><p><br /></p><p>Countermarks are almost always worth a premium because One, they are official.&nbsp; Two, they are normally the result of an emergency situation.&nbsp; Three, the production is usually small and survival in low.</p><p><br /></p><p>Counterstamps tend to come as two basic types, identified issuers, and unidentified issuers.&nbsp; Identified issuers are always worth more than unidentified ones.&nbsp; Identified issuers are typically full names or business names, sometimes with addresses, or a recognized logo etc.&nbsp; Rarely are they just individual letters.&nbsp; Unidentified issuers can also be full names that just have not been attributed to a specific person.&nbsp; Single letters or pairs of letters are almost always unidentified.&nbsp; Unidentified individual or paired letter punches should not be considered to be Counterstamps but would be better classified as simple damage.&nbsp; Many dealers with a coin that has a random letter punched into it will try and get a large premium for it by calling it a counterstamp.&nbsp; But if it can&#039;t be attributed to a specific issuer it should be treated as just a damaged coin and it&#039;s value should be reduced greatly, not increased.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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