Why are the P counterstamps on the J-44a platinum pattern backwards?

Zoins

I've always been curious why the "P" counterstamps are backwards on the J-44a platinum pattern. Anyone know the reason for this?

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Zoins

@afford said:
Maybe they are all small counterstamped "b"'s.

I've wondered the same thing. PCGS states they are the letter "P" but do not provide a reason:

Judd-44 is a very rare die trial of an 1814 Half Dollar struck in platinum. One of the known examples was defaced with a small P punched into the obverse a total of 33 times.

Zoins

Perhaps it's "P" for PCGS

davewesen

looks raised to me, but I have not seen the coin

if raised, a 'P', then was punched into the die at the end of the dies life. The must have forgot to use a backword 'P'.

Zoins

@davewesen said:
looks raised to me, but I have not seen the coin

if raised, a 'P', then was punched into the die at the end of the dies life. The must have forgot to use a backword 'P'.

The theory is that they were punched into the coin after striking and not the die because you can see deformities on the coin's reverse. If they were on the die, the reverse would have normal flat fields.

tradedollarnut

First question in order to answer your question is: what does a die engraver's letter P punch look like?

tradedollarnut

Zoins

I see, so they used a punch for dies and not a counterstamp/punch used for after striking. Normally a counterstamp would have a readable orientation, but this isn't what happened here.

CaptHenway

Yes, they used a punch such as might be used to sink a backwards letter in a die that would then produce a normal letter on a coin or medal.

Here's another question: Why does the "P" not have serifs at the base?

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Koinicker

@afford said:
FYI the so-called P's are counterstamped into the coin because you can see the damage or the push out on the reverse. Then you have the engraving which is similar in damage to the counterstamp an looks to be done in the same period by way of the lack of toning inside the counterstamps and the engraving but that is just a guess since "Platina" means Platinum, although I wonder why they didn't use the word Platinum since it was discovered in 1751 . Even J. Hewitt Judd states it is counterstamped. The obv & rev 107 die was used on Platinum where 3 are known and it is the only known Platinum 19th Century coins to exist.

Platina was the commonly used term for 'platinum' in the early 19th century, especially for its raw, impure form.