Featured Overstruck coins anyone?

I received a batch of overstruck Chinese coins over Korean 5 fun. I do have another batch of Russian overstruck coins but I'll post that on another day.

If you don't know what overstrike means, it just means that old coins are used as "planchets" and are struck with new designs. Sometimes, it's just done for trial, sometimes because of a lack of planchets, overstrikes were done. Or sometimes, it's just a quick way to "recycle" coins as melting them down and striking them were too costly. The best example for US coin would be the 1804 dollar coin over a Swiss thaler. (if I am not mistaken)

Here are some shocker Chinese overstruck 10 cash over Korean 5 fun.

China (Chekiang or Hupei) (1902-1906?) 10 cash overstruck on Korean Gaeguk 502 (1893)


China Chekiang (1902-1905) 10 cash overstruck on Korean Guangmu 6 (1902) 5 fun


China Hupei (1903-1906) 10 cash overstruck on Guangmu 2 (1898) 5 fun


China Chekiang (1903-1906) 10 cash overstruck on Korean 5 fun, likely to be Gaeguk 501-505. (1892-1896)


Overstruck coins happened in other countries such as Italy, France, Belgium, Russia, Brazil (and many other parts fo Central, South America), Sweden, etc. The list does go on but I don't think there is a comphrensive list of overstruck world coins.

Anyone else with overstruck coins? I'm intending to build a homepage of such overstruck coins and any infomation will be much appericated.

 

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Can you regard the Brazilian counterstamped coins as being overstruck? I know that Pieces of 8 were overstruck into 5/- pieces in 1804 until at least 1811 (the Bank of England $1,which are all dated 1804),6/- coins from Ireland,& Guernsey 5/- tokens.

Aidan.

 

I am on the lookout for some good examples of Yemeni Ahmadi riyals, dated AH1367 - 1381, these were quite often struck over MT thalers. Many half riyals of this period were made from blanks punched out of the centers of MT thalers. I'll send pictures if I get ahold of some.

 

That is a good question Aidan. Perhaps I will have to put a side note of known counterstamps but that will be a mammoth task. The Aussie holey dump coins will be in there as well. Will have to do some research on that. Thanks

I did forget about a British coin that I saw in the local coin dealer here, which happened to be a 1804 Bank dollar overstruck on Spanish colonial 8 reals (if I'm not mistsaken)

 

Costa Rica was counterstamping old 50 Centavos & 50 Centimos coins in 1923 to create 1 Colon coins.Some of these are pretty scarce.

Aidan.

 

To give some more trivia on the issues of the overstrikes on pieces of eight:

They were overstruck by Matthew Boulton of the Soho mint, near Birmingham from 1804 to possibly 1812.

Due to the amount needed to be produced, and the primative machinery, sometimes the date,lettering, bust or even an earlier countermark shows through the BOE $ design.

These pieces are very highly collected, and over 20 minor bust/reverse design differences exist, as well as patterns and proofs in silver and copper.

The dies were bought by W.J. Taylor in 1848, and he used them to create a fantasy copper "twopence" dated 1808.

 

It depends on which Brazilian coins you are talking about. If you mean the pieces where they simply counterstamp a number on the coins to change their value then no I would call those countermarked. But if you mean the 960 reis coins where they overstruck the 8 Reales pieces with full size dies then yes those are overstrikes. (I only consider them to be overstrikes if the die used covers all or almost all of the original coin. If it is an official striking but the dies or punch is smaller then it is a countermark. If it is an unofficial marking used for advertising or purpose other than to enhance the coins circulating ability then it is a counterstamp. If it is unofficial but meant to encourage the coins circulation it's a chopmark.)

 

The best example of an overstruck coin in my country (Belgium) is the 2 centimes (lion) which was overstruck on Dutch 1 cent pieces just after the Belgian independence.
I am also familiar with the French revolutionary UN DECIME overstruck on 2 decimes planchets and the Swedish öres overstruck on De Görtz daler-SM emergency coinage-planchets.

 

I have a small collection of about a dozen of these all overstamp / counterstamp 1923 Costa Rica. 25c, 50c, and Colons. If you would like pictures or have interest - let me know. I got them in an auction lot some time ago.

Looks like this may be a very old post though.

 

I've got one. Did you mean this?



I left it out as I felt it was more of a counterstamp instead of an overstrike. Still it's an interesting piece of history.

 

There are such examples within the Conder token series, this one the pawnbroker token Yorkshire 13 struck over a North Wales 12 halfpenny (which I've rotated to align with the orientation of the host token.)

 

I like it! Thanks for sharing yarm.

I forgot to mention that I have a compilation of various overstruck coins around the world.

http://gxseries.com/numis/overstrike/world_overstrike.htm

 

Spanish VIII maravedis 1618 from my collection. This coin was counterstamped too. But I don't know who made it.

 

Maybe I'm using the wrong term in my searches, but how do you describe coins with a merchant's initials punched into them? I'm trying to find anything I can about why the initials "E . M" would be on an 1866 shield nickel with rays.

It's possibly an early style Love Token, but the letters are punched in such a haphazard way that it suggests someone cranking these out by hand to me.

 

George, a chop mark is when a silver coin is verified by a money man (forgive me for not recalling their proper title). When the coin is verified by the amount of silver it has, the person puts their distinctive mark on the coin to say "I certify this coin" falsification or error could sometimes result in death.

As for what you are describing, that is a counter stamp. Someone was promoting their personal or business name.

 

Yes the 1804 BOE Dollar is overstruck on Spanish Reals.

 

I didn't see it mentioned, sorry if I missed it. Italy overstamped their own coinage in 1918. Image courtesy of NGC, note the light number 20 rotated 90 degrees to the right.

 

1692 French écu overstruck on an eariler écu, Bordeaux mint. You can see part of a fleur-de-lis on Louis' cheek. From 1690 to 1725 the écu was devalued several times by royal decree -- new designs were issued to represent the changed value and often overstruck on older coins.

 

Here's an example of an overstruck 1918 20 Centemisis on an 1895 20 Centemisis planchet.

 

Great example, but I beat you by two posts.