Twin Valley Minnesota

savoyspecial · January 24, 2009 1:13PM

wondering if any members live near there........i dont (i'm in NC) but i picked up a neat counterstamp today from Hallenbeck Coin Galleries:

Walmann · January 24, 2009 1:16PM

Northwestern part of the state, fairly small population the entire county has less than 8,000 people.
Twin Valley population about 770. Odds are not good.

TheRegulator · January 24, 2009 1:39PM

I saw that piece on the Bay- when do you think it was counterstamped?

Nice grab.

Norseman88 · January 24, 2009 1:44PM

I live about 35 miles away from Twin Valley in Norman county in the currently frigid state of Minnesota.

savoyspecial · January 24, 2009 3:45PM

someone asked when i thought this was stamped.......hard to say......i'm leaning towards believing that this might be a fantasy c/s.......if this is the case, it was intended to pass as a stamp from the 1870's or 80's (side note: the coin is genuine; its the stamps i'm questioning)

Host coin is of New Orleans mintage.....these usually (but not exclusively) circulated east of the Mississippi River.......the obverse stamp can be identified as TWIN VALLEY, MINN (minnesota)

more interesting is the reverse stamp which reads N.P.Ex (i'm making a leap here, but i think this was to stand for Nevada Province Exchange)......there are known 20th century fantasy pieces for N.P. silver mines listed by Brunk and he even mentions, without illustration, an NP Exchange countermark

you will noticed that both stamps were made from a similar punch that would impart a dot-matrix pattern behind the lettering (under a loupe this appears as a waffle or lattice pattern).......my guess is these stamps were added in the early 1900's.......if anyone has any info to add about this piece please post here or contact me via PM as i would greatly appreciate it

and since i named the seller earlier (from an Ebay auction) i feel obligated to mention that i purchased this while suspecting that the stamps may be fantasies as the existence of such a piece did not seem to "make sense"

$13 was the princely sum for this study coin......again, soliciting for any more info here

numisma · January 24, 2009 5:02PM

I will venture a guess as well. I think that you are close on your estimate regarding the era. It is probably a late 1800s piece (1890s or so). I do not think that it is a fantasy, but rather an actual counterstamped piece. You are also correct regarding the distribution of O-mint coinage, but that was contemporaneous. This piece is probably an 1850s Seated half (we could find out by taking a very close look....probably an 1858-O), so it had plenty of time to make its way to Minnesota by the late 1800s. Based on the wear and patination, it seems that this coin served as a pocket piece for quite some time after being stamped.

Interesting. I am going to guess that this coin has to do with the Northern Pacific Railroad based on the Twin Valley, MN reference. That railroad went through Twin Valley. Based on the actual stamp, it could be a memento of the Northern Pacific Exposition, even though I can find little on that subject. Hartzog lists known "N.P. EX. Co." stamps, so it is probably a Northern Pacific Exchange Company, of which I cannot find any information.

Here are the big clues. If you can tie the above information to the following key words/phrases, then you may solve the mystery: "Rockford, Dakota," "Grantsdale, Montana," "Wallace," and/or "Seal and Press Company." I still think this piece has to do with the Northern Pacific Railroad....somehow. I will add one final comment. I think that the stamp was not made for use on coinage, but rather another source and a few coins were stamped for the sake of fun. That theory is based on the illogical location of the stamps on the host coin.

Good luck! Coin piece.

Twin Valley Minnesota

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