I once owned an 1877 IH 1c with an identical stamp in the the exact same location. I believe they quite rare because at the time Brunk did not have this mark listed and stated later that only 2 others had been reported at the time, both were on on IH cents. What does the reverse look like?
Just out of curiosity, if you were to counterstamp coins today would the Secret Service be all over you? I've seen newer coins with stickers on them, but that's not damage. And back in the early '60s people were painting red skullcaps on Washington on the quarter. JFK had just been elected President and he was Catholic. Made Washington look like the pope. But again, that wasn't damage.
kanga: I do believe that it is not necessarily illegal to degace US coins, unless the intent is to deceive. Check out all of the 'painted' states quarters that are constantly for sale, including gold plated ones. Also, you mneitoned the painting of the quarters in the '60's. That was done by store owners to put into juke boxes, to start up the playing. They would get their coins back when the change was collected by the owner of the juke box.
Too bad about that stamp! nice date too, could sell for a few bucks if it didnt have it. Im not really a fan of them... but anyways... PM Sent, regarding Indians.... Indian Head cents that is.
I've got a counter stamped state quarter, it's just like this http://www.smalldollars.com/dollar/page36.html#sdcs I guess the secret service hasn't been in touch with them yet...
I doubt if there's any law against what they're doing. This is no different than what the http://www.wheresgeorge.com people do with currency.
If counterstamping a coin is a misdemeanor then I suppose making an elongated cent (aka smashed penny) would be a felony.
Good point about elongated cents. In addition, I'm not a lawyer, but I think there is the "intent" and the"letter" of the law. In other words, it might be illegal to deface a coin, but if it's for a souvenir or to keep track of your quarters (on a very small basis), and so on and so forth, no one is going to rattle your cage. As I think TreasHunt said, when you start to try to "fool" people, then you're getting into a gray area.
Counterstamping, defacing, painting, altering for the coin are all perfectly legal as long as there is no intent to defraud with one exception. It IS illegal to place advertising upon the coin and then reintroduce it into circulation. I believe it was United artists that got in trouble with that with their colorized quarter promotion for the Fantastic Four movie sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer. US Code Title 18 Sec 475 Fine is $500. If they made it $500 per offense that could mount up pretty quickly. (They did 40,000 silver surfer quarters for a potential of $20 million in fines. I don't think any actual fines were levied though.) An ad for a location or event on an elongated coin is legal because they are not being reintroduced into circulation.
