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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ExoMan, post: 3130208, member: 72588&quot;]Sorry, fellas, for my absence. Got hung up in a phone booth, I did .... Really, Bruce sent me a heads-up on this thread.</p><p><br /></p><p>Over the years, I&#039;ve attributed many a silversmith counterstamp; these, being hallmarks or their &quot;retail&quot; marks. To date, I&#039;ve not been able to match the <b>RF</b> counterstamp to that of any known silversmith hallmark. Plentiful as these <b>RF</b> c/s&#039;s are, I suspect that, if a match were to be made, knowledge would have surfaced by now. Collectors of early silver are quite avid and studious. In general, the surviving coin c/s&#039;s of most silversmiths tend to be quite few in number. In stark contrast, these <b>RF</b> c/s&#039;s are most plentiful. To my mind, the large population suggests that they had some utilitarian use, but what? A two-letter hallmark doesn&#039;t much serve as an advertisement. I concur with Brunk that these date to the 1840&#039;s. The letters are stylized or fancy, suited to that era, it seems.&nbsp; I don&#039;t regard these c/s&#039;s as &quot;fake&quot; pieces, early and plentiful as they are.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are a few pics of the <b>RF</b> c/s on an 1802 cent; this, for those unfamiliar with same ....</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]798304[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]798305[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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