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Poll: Counterstrike? (updated)

UPDATE: found an interesting section in Krause that uses hand-strike vs dies as the distinction; see my most-recent post.

Is there technically any difference, and does it matter?

Counterstrike ... Counterstamp ... Countermark ... Overstrike ... why so many terms?

edit: decided to add a photo just in case (I know, crazy!) you don't know to what I am referring:

image
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Comments

  • SapyxSapyx Posts: 1,976 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I believe the accepted definitions are:

    Counterstamp: "a punch mark or marks, officially applied to a coin or a segment of a coin to change its value and/or indicate its acceptance as legal tender in a place beyond where it was issued" (Encyclopedic Dictionary of Numismatics by Richard Doty). The revaluation counterstamps on early Brazilian copper coins and on 20th century Costa Rican coins are both good examples of this.

    Countermark: similar to a counterstamp, but unofficially applied. Chinese chopmarks, Indian shroff marks and a storekeeper stamping his name on a rival company's tokens are examples of countermarks.

    Overstrike: an extreme version of a counterstamp, where the entire previous design of the coin (the "undertype") has been completely or almost completely obliterated on both sides by the new design (the "overtype"). Bank of England dollars and Brazilian 960 reis are excellent examples of this.

    Counterstrike: sudden retaliatory military action. This word has nothing to do with numismatics.

    According to these definitions, the "liberty dollars" of Anguilla such as the one you've pictured are therefore either counterstamps or countermarks, depending on whether or not you believe the Anguillan revolutionary government was "official" or not. Personally, I'd vote "counterstamp".
    Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
    Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

    Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD. B)
  • LochNESSLochNESS Posts: 4,829 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Counterstrike: sudden retaliatory military action. This word has nothing to do with numismatics. >>


    image well thank you VERY much for clearing that up! image I have seen it used before and often wondered.
    I thought perhaps my thread was too silly, but nine votes!



    << <i>... the "liberty dollars" of Anguilla ... are therefore either counterstamps or countermarks, depending on whether or not you believe the Anguillan revolutionary government was "official" ... Personally, I'd vote "counterstamp" >>


    Thanks for the vote of confidence in the official-ness of my NEWP imageimage
    ANA LM • WBCC 429

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  • LochNESSLochNESS Posts: 4,829 ✭✭✭
    Found this when I plopped down my Krause "Unusual" catalog and it opened itself to page XXI:

    … a countermark might be considered similar to the "hall mark" applied to a piece of silverware, by which a silversmith assured the quality of the piece. In the same way, a countermark assures the quality of the coin on which it is placed, as, for example, when the royal crown of England was countermarked (punched into) on segmented Spanish reales, allowing them to circulate in commerce in the British West Indies. An additional countermark indicating the new denomination may also be encountered on these coins. Countermarks are generally applied singularly and in most cases indiscriminately on either side of the "host" coin.

    Counterstamped coins are more extensively altered. The counterstamping is done with a set of dies, rather than a hand punch. The coin being counterstamped is placed between the new dies and struck as if it were a blank planchet as found with the Manila 8 reales issue of the Philippines. A more unusual application where the counterstamp dies were smaller than the host coin in the revalidated 50 centimos and 1 colon of Costa Rica issued in 1923.
    -Krause Unusual World Coins 4th Ed.
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