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SOME ROOSTER COUNTERSTAMPS

The E-Sylum (5/12/2013)


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Fred Michaelson submitted these notes and images about rooster counterstamps which sheds some light on the "chicken" stamp mentioned earlier. Thanks! -Editor

Rooster obv Rooster rev

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.

Rooster GGWilkins 4 kepings 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)

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