1850 Cent... Counterstamp?

[MunkyMan95]

I've had this coin for quite a while... Know what the heck is going on here??

 

[TomB]

Hey!!! It's a PL large cent!!!

[MunkyMan95]

...

[MunkyMan95]

 

Nobody else knows?

[Bruceswar]

I am going to guess it was used a company to pay for an item or a employee, and so the company would not have to print tonkens they used cents instead.

[HaydenTubbs]

Perhaps someone marked it to signify a a special event,a birth perhaps?Maybe just a personal pocket piece...who knows. You should ask across the street too,since there are some folks who collect counterstamped coins.

[Hoot]

Counterstamping large cents was somewhat common when the large coppers circulated. I suppose that this, in part, was a way to signify "good copper" the same way that counterstamped trade dollars and other precious metal coinage signaled the proper weight for trade. On the other hand, counterstamping copper may also have been done for the sport of it, much like a person writing their initials on a dollar bill today, or placing a "Where's George?" stamp on a dollar. Lastly, counterstamping coppers was also done by merchants as a cheap form of advertising, and took the place of store cards. Some counterstamped cents bear the initials of celebrated merchants of the times, people of some notability, and others attempting to make a name for themselves vis-a-vis a seemingly peculiar activity (although I'm not familiar with the specifics of any of these).

 

Q. David Bowers is a serious collector of counterstamped large cents. I suppose he'd have volumes to say about it, and it would be quite interesting. I'll try to remember to ask him about it some time.

 

I recently found one of these in a dealer's junk box that read "R. McD" - and I don't think it stood for Ronald McDonald!

 

Hoot

[Brotherman]

Interesting read Hoot

 

Hays

[James_OldeTowne]

I own several counterstamped coins, but do not collect them in a formal manner.

 

James