I was looking at a coin I have with a star on the obverse and a rooster on the reverse. The rooster is kind of weak, probably because the star was done after the rooster and it compromised the integrity of the fowl.

I knew I'd recently seen something about a rooster stamp, but I couldn't remember where. I did a search of The E-sylum archive and came up with three things: Gene Brandenburg's "chicken" coin from March 3 of this year, which has the same stamp as mine; a report that Frank Rooster was among six new subscribers in the April 26, 2009 issue. (He's a bird who tells it like it is.); and from the October 9, 2003 issue, a report that in Amesbury, Mass., a rooster was killed and inside his crop were found 13 nickel cents and 2 2-cent pieces. It was remarked that this was the first known instance in which the numismatic fever attacked a lower animal.

I combed through some of my books, but all I could find were references to a rooster stamp in Russell Rulau's book and in Gregory Brunk's book. The consensus is that the stamp was done in Massachusetts, but why and by whom are unknown.

The rooster from Lewiston, Maine is a different stamp. The rooster on the Sumatran 4-Keping coin (with the G.G.Wilkins counterstamp) is not a stamp; it's part of the coin, but since we're discussing coins and roosters I thought I'd throw that in.All these words and all I've really said is that the stamp looks to be from Massachusetts.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:QUERY: CHICKEN COUNTERSTAMPS(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v16n09a14.html)