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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Flamdrag99, post: 2581084, member: 83236&quot;]This Azores countermarked series is plagued with forgeries.&nbsp; There are probably more forgeries than there are genuine examples.&nbsp; The problem with this particular countermark is that many of the forgeries are and have been accepted as being genuine for a long time.&nbsp; These countermarks were supposed to be applied to worn out silver coins to revalidate them so that they could circulate freely. Much like your Spanish mainland pistareen, though from the image it is difficult to say for sure if it is genuine or not either.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>One thing about countermarked coinage to keep in mind is does the countermark/host combination make sense for the issue.&nbsp; Reading about the time of issue and any decrees or other information pertaining to the issue and how and why they were issued will help incredably. </p><p><br /></p><p>Azores is an Island&nbsp; near Europe and does not have the natural resources to produce the specie needed for commerce and had to rely on the specie they got through trade from the mainland.&nbsp; Early US coinage was not really used for international trade and are in fact rare with foreign countermarks.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The Azores countermark was supposed to be applied in 1885, which means that the 1829 $1/2 would have circulated for more than 50 years, not to mention that it would have circulated after the application of the countermark. I would say that the countermark is highly suspicious, but on an apearently genuine host coin.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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