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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;JBK, post: 3140154, member: 1101&quot;]Bruce, that is absolutely amazing that you could get an identification on that coin. I wonder if it was issued during the Reform era and if the markings are from a prepared punch or individual punches.&nbsp; There are presumably others out there, and thanks to your efforts they can now be attributed, at least as to meaning if not issuer.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have come across a counterstamp that serves to resolve what was (still is?) an old mystery.&nbsp; Somewhere I have an English penny from the very early 1900s with &quot;TIS AN OLD RYE&quot; stamped at the lower part of the portrait on the obverse.&nbsp; Brunk listed it but without a known attribution.</p><p><br /></p><p>Recently I picked up another version that I believe explains the meaning. It is a 1907 English penny with TISANOLD RYE counterstamped on the reverse. An internet search shows that the J. Samuels company of New York city sold a whiskey by that name. I suspect that TIS AN OLD RYE was a play on words.</p><p><br /></p><p>The mystery remains as to how the pennies were used. Unless the rye was sold in England and the pennies were used there, it seems a little extravagant to buy UK pennies to give away in the US, but who knows.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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