A couple weeks ago, a friend called me and asked if I was going to be at the Auburn Massachusetts coin show the following Sunday. I said sure, I would be there. He told me "I have a coin you will buy." That was intriguing, as I don't hear that very often. The following Sunday, saying "This isn't it," he handed me a 20-cent piece with 5 holes drilled through it. It was quite humorous, but for $25, I wasn't not going to buy it. I saw him holding another flip, and I held out my hand.

When I took a look at it, I broke out laughing. It was an 1872 Liberty Seated Dollar, a nice Fine+ coin, with a decent-sized hole drilled through it. The thing that caused me to laugh was the large "REJECTED" counterstamp across the obverse. I turned it over and the same counterstamp was across the reverse as well.

My friend said he thought the coin was genuine, so he wondered why it was marked as rejected. I assume some institution or business was redeeming coins and this one was kicked out because it was underweight from a silver perspective because of the hole. But why not simply refuse it? Why permanently brand the coin as undesirable? But he was right - it was reasonably priced and I bought it. I showed it to a number of people and they laughed too!

I subsequently did a little searching to see if any other coins were marked with the same REJECTED Counterstamp. Finding a website on exonumia, there was a page on counterstamps (http://exonumismatics.com/ctstp/ctstp.html) and sure enough, there was a low-grade Trade Dollar in AG (in an NCS Good details holder) with the same counterstamp. Again, this was probably done because the coin was underweight. The photo below is from exonumismatics.com.

Has anyone else seen other Liberty Seated coins (or any other for that matter) with this counterstamp? I'd be interested to understand how widespread this practice was. I expect coins marked like this are rare, because I would assume at some point most would be redeemed at least for silver content and then melted for re-coinage. If anyone has seen other coins like this, please let me know at john.frost@doubledimes.com.

Needless to say, this once unwanted holed 1872 Liberty Seated dollar has found a happy home!

For more information about the Liberty Seated Collectors Club, see:
www.lsccweb.org