What's the deal with counter stamped coins?

I found out some info on the coin from the cuhaj book on world coins. It says that these stamps were introduced by central American countries when their currency became inflated and to keep up with the larger economies (mexico, USA) to the north. To save money they started minting 50% silver coins. Meanwhile they doubled the value of the coins already in circulation by stamping them with doubled value marks. So 25 centavos became 50 etc. very interesting! I'm glad I bought it.

 

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In my opinion, this is the coolest counterstamped coin on the planet.



1814 E50C Half Dollar, Judd-44, Pollock-48, R.8, NGC (No Grade Assigned)

 

Impressive!!

Bruce

 

Thanks for the info Swervo, now I know what they're all about

Bruce

 

Looking at this for 100

 

i am sure you are going to do what i would do;which is see if there is any info on this coin first then buy.i see many coins that i like,but do not have the info to make an intelligent purchase so i pass.that is just the way i do things though.

 

For many thousands of Brunks pieces IDd, I cant copy the URL, type "complete list of countermarked coins" using google. About the 2nd site down, you should see it.
It has A-C then D-F, etc. I've found this invaluable.

 

I'm finally able to download pictures again so here goes.
This is an example of an unattributed counterstamp I recently picked up from eBay. So far I haven't been able to identify the makers but I'm working on it. These multiple stamped coins are among the most challenging to identify but I've been successful in the past doing so. Anybody know these characters?

Bruce

 

Thanks for reminding me 16d I'd forgotten about Hartzog's site. A good source for sure.

Bruce

 

Those are some nice coins. The 1823 Ferdinand is a Vique CounterMark from Cuba on a Spanish 2 reales coin.

 

You know that 1824 half is actually the 1824/1, right? Nice overdate!

 

Cool!

 

I've been looking for anyone with knowledge on counter marks and haven't been able to get anywhere other than what are on auctions. I have a 1864 Indian head penny with a wp though it and the only thing i could find was about a Hawaiian Plantation that had a wp stamp but only on Hawaiian coins but feel it could be their stamp as it looks identical. Do you have anything with a wp that goes across the front middle of the coin? I can never seem to download pics either. It should be easy but it isn't.
Any info would be great
Barb Smith

 

The only "WP" counterstamp that I'm aware of is struck on a small number of Australian tokens. I haven't seen one, but suspect they may be ranch or estate issues, possibly used to pay workers or meant to be spent in a company store much like the old coal scrip issued by American coal mining companies. In any case, an Australian stamp wouldn't appear on an American coin so you have something different.

Could you give me some information about this Hawaiian "WP" token or about the plantation itself? I will look into it for you, but may not come across the same information that you did. A picture would be really important in an effort to try to attribute your piece. You can post a picture by clicking on "Upload a File" and opening an image that you select from your computer.

While you're working on that, I'll look around for information for you, Barb.

Bruce

 

I'm going to try to get u a picture of it. it looks a lot like the stamp in the red book 2018 pg. 425 dealing with the HI Plantation stamp. from what i was able to find out they did have coins made for HI in 1847 but they turned out really bad, were mispelled and the picture of the king was terrible so the islanders would not use the coins and it did say they continued to make their own tokens and also during this time they used american coins. i have pictures but i do have them on my fb finally can't seem to get my phone to upload them. do u have a fb account or a way I can send u the pictures. So far u are the only I have found that seems to have any idea about these coins. I took it to the local coin dealer and he was very intrigued by it but also was unable to identify it. I am leaning more and more towards the HI Plantations but want u to see a pic of them so u can see it closely to understand what i am talking about.
Thanks
Barb

 

I have pics on my phone and can send them in a text to u. i've tried everything with this phone to upload and can't make it work. it is a new phone so am learning but sure isn't being user friendly. Just let me know what works for u as I would love for you to see it and give me your opinion.

 

I forgot, I was looking at the Hawaiian plantations through wikipedia and found a lot of information on the plantations and the use of money as payment for the workers and when and how they tried to have money made for the King in 1847 but that it pretty much failed on the island. They needed smaller denominations for payment and use on the island so that is what makes me think this might have been stamped by them if they truly were using us coins during this time period. Their w.p. is just like mine except they have a period after the W.P. and is raised where mine is punched out of the coin which would explain not trying to punch out a period and I think it would have been removed from the punch. if you look closely at the w p u can see they are identical in shape size and to me it looks the same.
maybe i am seeing what i want to see but i sure can't find anything else that even comes close to this at all.
Thanks and sorry for all the emails am just excited to find someone that is willing to help me figure this out.

 

I see that you've been working hard on trying to identify your piece, Barb. These types of investigations can get intense when you get into them. I've always been that way with the hundreds of counterstamp research projects I've done over the years.

I haven't found anything of interest yet, but might get some clues from your pictures. I'll send you my email address in a private message on this site, and hopefully you can contact me that way. Talk to you soon.

Bruce

 

Did you get the pictures i sent to your aol account? It showed that they were sent so hopefully u were able to see them.

you can send me an email on my yahoo account. Edited, do not give email or other address.

 

@Barbs please do not state your email on this forum. There is the risk of people finding it here and using it for different unpleasant things.