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Message:: [QUOTE="Dale Seppa, post: 2202440, member: 75258"]I would appreciate any comments or corrections to the following;Not included in the listings above are the "RA" counterstamps from the Galapagos Islands.  Some information is found in MANUEL J. COBOS - SU VIDA Y SU OBRA by Dr. Octavio Latorre.  His  work, and other research, leads me to believe that it is within the realm of possibility that some coins may have been counterstamped by or for Alvarado after 1909 although I believe none could have been done later than 1917-18.  (Latorre makes no mention of an "R" counterstamp.)  I must also mention that Melvin Hoyos Galarza in LME included an interview with the son of Rogelio Alvarado which seems to substantiate the possibility that some legitimate "RA" counterstamps exist.  Any references that show the governor of Guayas gave Alvarado permission to counterstamp coins in 1883 are bogus.  Alvarado was eleven years old at that time and did not arrive in the Galapagos until 1909 or so.  As another point of interest I have been informed that Dr. Gregory Brunk, probably the world's leading authority on counterstamps, considers all of the "R" and "RA" issues to be fake.  A first-person report or a listing in any book, article, FPL or auction catalog dated prior to 1950 would go a long way toward proving that legitimate examples exist.  In NE Reyes describes a method that he says would allow a person to determine which are the originals and which are the artificial (hechiza) coins.  That information was given to him by Sr. Carlos Iza Teran of the Museo Numismatico del Banco Central del Ecuador.  I do not have enough knowledge or sufficient examples available to determine if that method has a high degree of validity.[/QUOTE]

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