The Head of a fool stamped on the neck of an @ss!

Picked this up this weekend!


Facing a desperate shortage of silver coins in 1797, the Bank of England re-issued altered foreign coins from its reserves. Some half a million pounds worth of Charles IV Spanish 'dollars' were counter-stamped with a small engraving of George III.

 

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Im suprised how the rules clearly state that you cant post bad words and using abbreviations or shortenings of words such as what you say in your title, is not allowed, and im suprised a moderator didnt notice, or didnt care to. Nevertheless, a very nice coin, and nice history.

 

George wasn't that bad... just utterly insane!

 

The bad word you are referring to is another name for a stubborn mule and is not intended now or when the saying was created (1840ish) to mean anything else. Nevertheless, I used an "@" instead of an "A" to try and keep from ruffling anyones feathers...

I apologize if the word offended you.

 

That's certainly one of the most dramatic and historically interesting counter-stamps I've ever seen.

 

The title of this thread is actually the phrase that these coins are known as in the industry. When I read the title I knew immediately what coin would be pictured and with what counterstamp.

 

^^^ This.

That's one of the best looking ones I have seen. Pretty clear counterstamp on it!

 

there is a bit of history to these.i live in dorset south england the wealth of this county was built on the newfoundland trade.ships sailed from local ports,poole,weymouth,lyme regis to the boston area of new england taking new settlers and supplies.then sailed north to newfoundland bought salted fish,sailed to spain sold the fish to the catholics |(no meat on fridays)used some of the money to buy fruit,came back to dorset.sold the oranges etc.but the coins left over from the sale of fish went into circulation.people did not like spanish coins with the spanish king so the countermark was put on them.the full saying is in order to make the five shillings pass they put the head of a fool on the neck of a (mule )!!!!!!!!

 

I was told once that modern fakes of these are common but I don't have the whole story on this and don't know if it is the whole coin or just the countermark that is being reproduced. Can someone summarize the situation on these other than the standard warning only to buy from a trusted source? I always wanted one of these but am in no way comfortable buying modern coins so completely out of my areas of study.

 

fakes are not common,you can get the coin as a fake with the counterstamp guenuine,the coin guenuine and the stamp a fake or both--but as i say not common

 

Very nice pickup Joseph. None of these in my collection, but maybe someday. BTW, I'm lovin' the Yankee Robinson stamp I got from you...one of the highlights of my collection.

Bruce

 

Kind of applies to the Kennedy stamps, but I still like Lincoln so I won't go there.

 

I really miss this coin...

 

Did the host coin or counterstamp ever get authenticated?

 

I never sent it in, I dont even remember when or to whom I sold it too. They are not too hard to find, I see 1-2 a year at smaller shows.

 

The octagon counterstamp was heavily counterfeited at the time of issue so the chances of finding one with a genuine counterstamp are pretty small.

 

A counterfeit counterstamp from that period would be more interesting to me than an official counterstamp from that period.

 

Not sure about the counterstamp, but the host is 100% not authentic.