The last item on the invoice was a 1799 Silver Dollar, “Counterstamped with head of Benjamin Franklin.” It was called Very fine, and sold for $40.00. If anyone knows anything about this important counterstamped Dollar, please contact me at wdperki@attglobal.net . I have never seen or heard of this, despite a strong interest in counterstamped Early Dollars 1794-1803.

I found it in The Medals of Franklin by Phil W. Greenslet edited by David E. Schenkman of 1993 by Token and Medal Society, Inc. page 212 as item GT-705. The description says “(same as GT-701; struck on U.S. 1799 silver dollar) (blank except for coin design) silver 39 mm, R-10 (Fuld Civil War token 153/B1)”.

I looked at Fuld’s Photographic Plates for Patriotic Civil War Tokens, Volume 1 and found what appears to be the counterstamp token on Plate VI as number 153. This is a recent addition to NNP, so you should be able to download it there quite easily.

This is a civil war token die.

See Civil War Token Society Journal vol. 6, no. 2, page 46 (available on Newman Portal).

This coin (or token) is listed in the current (fifth) edition of the Fuld patriotic Civil War token catalog as die combination 153/0, overstruck on a silver planchet (code fo), rarity R10 (unique), with comment "over 1799 U.S. dollar". In the current (second) edition of the "Official Red Book Guide Book of Civil War Tokens," page 130, Q. David Bowers notes that die 153, which is only 18mm in diameter, has been used to make "numismatic strikes", still exists, and "has been used to make modern strikings."

Most notably, ANA president J. Henri Ripstra used it to strike a personal token in aluminum or white metal that was distributed at the 1939 ANA convention in New York City. Because of the small size of this die, it would be more correct to call the 153/0 a counterstamp than an overstrike.

The Newman Portal has grown past my ability to keep all its resources in my head and it is great to see the community mining its content.