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Message:: [QUOTE="Clinker, post: 948380, member: 6229"]What does a country do when the intrinsic (bullion) value of their coinage exceeds the face value and people start amassing the coins to sell in quantitiy to scrappers for remelting? What do nations, large and small, do to counter the devaluation of its coinage relative to stable currencies such as the British Pound, Swiss Franc and USA Dollar? Some countries enact laws with heavy penalties including a death sentence. Some create laws forbidding the exportation of coins enmasse or exiting the country with pocket change. Quite a few Spanish-American countries, experiencing the problem in their pasts, had another way of coping with the problem; they increased the face value of the affected coins with a counterstamp. Costa Rica is one such country. Prior to 1920 Costa Rica issued silver coinage in denominations of 5 Centavos, 10 Centavos, 25 Centavos and 50 Centavos.In 1920 silver was replaced with Brass. In 1923 a decision was made to recall all past silver coins with face values of 25 Centavos and 50 Centavos and a decree was issued to double the two coins' previous denominations by counterstamping the obverses with 1923 within a circle or on an old shield design and the reverses with the increased values of 50 CENTIMOS and UN COLON within a circle. To keep this article in "trivia" parameters, I'm only going to share links to a few counterstamped coins (photos courtesy of Don's World Coin Gallery worldcoingallery.com): When you see the photos you will notice the counterstamps are not always in correct alignment with the , both obverse and reverse. The host coin's date is still visible but the original denomination is obliterated by the counter strike. Note Don's text say's Centavos, but the denomination counterstamp reads CENTIMOS: Counterstamped 50 CENTIMOS on 1892 25 CENTAVOS (1923 on old Shield): <a href="http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coine.php?image=nmc1/46-157&desc=Costa%20Rica%20km157%2050%20Centavos%20(1923)%20counterstamped%2025%20Centavos&query=Costa%20Rica%20km%20157" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coine.php?image=nmc1/46-157&desc=Costa%20Rica%20km157%2050%20Centavos%20(1923)%20counterstamped%2025%20Centavos&query=Costa%20Rica%20km%20157" rel="nofollow">http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coine.php?image=nmc1/46-157&desc=Costa Rica km157 50 Centavos (1923) counterstamped 25 Centavos&query=Costa Rica km 157</a> Couinterstamped UN COLON over 1896 50 CENTAVOS (1923 within Circle): <a href="http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coine.php?image=nmc2/46-163&desc=Costa%20Rica%20km163%201%20Colon%20(1923)%20counterstamped%20124&query=Costa%20Rica%20km%20163" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coine.php?image=nmc2/46-163&desc=Costa%20Rica%20km163%201%20Colon%20(1923)%20counterstamped%20124&query=Costa%20Rica%20km%20163" rel="nofollow">http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coine.php?image=nmc2/46-163&desc=Costa Rica km163 1 Colon (1923) counterstamped 124&query=Costa Rica km 163</a> Thought you should know... Clinker[/QUOTE]

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