Counterstamp Trade Dollars

In the late nineteenth century counterstamping coins was the only way for the merchants to reach their customers to advertise their business. The coins are counterstamped not only for advertising, some seem to have stamped on a whim, other counterstamped coins are political in nature. The list just goes on.

The term could be mystifying. Some use the term counterstamp and some say countermark. And there are people who say that neither applies since both words should reserved for government punches.

History

Gregory G. Brunk, in his American and Canadian Countermarked Coins, identifies three periods of counterstamping activity. The first extensive period came during the hard time era. The greatest period of American stamping occurred just before and just after civil war. The final period of substantial activity happened during the late 1870’s and continued through early 1880’s.

Now its illegal to do stamping of advertising on coinsm, and seemed to have died out in the United States about 1880 and in Canada 1920.

Chinese characters in counterstamps

When trade dollars were first circulated in the Orient, many of them were chopmarked with Chinese characters. You can find these marks, stamped into the obverse and/or reverse of the coin. These chopmarked pieces served Chinese intended purpose and it was actually circulated their. The Chinese characters where imprinted or stamped with punches o the surface of the coin. This punches indicates that the coins are original and of proper weight.

F.M Rose the author of the book “Chopmark” found the following meanings which he has taken from a variety of coin types. Family Names – academy, arrow, blue, Buddha, Chiang,commodity, dollar, fat, forever, husband, immortal, Jen, master, scholar, silver, speech, star, tendon, Tung. Siamese banker – wealth, wood, and Yong Kim Hong.

He points out that the chopmaking was a time honored tradition in china, especially in Hong Kong, where it was legally recognized. Some of the coins where heavily chopmarked and they became out of shape which resulted in loosing its design.