Picked up an 1809 half cent at a local auction tonight and it had an imprint/stamp (whatever the term is) on it. It had "WW" (or maybe it is "MM"?) on it. Besides that, it's in pretty good shape. Anyone know what the initials stand for? I thought I seen a similar thread on this board before but couldn't find it. I've attached a scan of the 2x2 with the coin in it (my digital camera takes bad pics of coins, so this is the best I can do).
The countermark is definitely WW. By the way, could you possibly get a close-up pick of the date? It could be any one of the following: -1809, Small "o" Inside "0" -1809, Triple-Punched "9" -1809, Normal Date
Some counterstamped coins are highly collectible. Not sure about that one though. There have been a number of threads on CoinTalk about counterstamped coins. You should be able to dredge them up by searching for "counterstamped" or "counterstamp".
My scanner only does 600dpi, so that pic is the largest I can scan. Here's a pic that has the date trimmed and the contrast increased a little. Not sure if it'll help though... Thanks Hobo, the word "counterstamp" has brought up some results (here and elsewhere on the net). Will need to do some searching...
Brunk's does not list this WW counterstamp in his large book on the subject. It appears that the letters were made individually, which could have been virtually anyone back in the day, so it is very difficult to attribute that style of counterstamp.
