Lot 2050

The obverse is counterstamped with Lafayette facing right, GENERAL LAFAYETTE around, and 1824 below. This counterstamp is 14.5 mm. diameter. The reverse is naturally flattened opposite the counterstamp, however, remnants of an incuse mirror image of the reverse design are also noted. Holed at 12:00 relative to Lafayette, obviously to be worn on a ribbon. The incuse reverse design is very similar to a brockage, however, we believe that this was actually created by the person who counterstamped a coin. In all likelihood, this dime was placed on top of another dime with reverse side up, then punched with the counterstamp die.

Most known Lafayette counterstamps on coins of this era have a related counterstamp of Washington on the opposite side. These are known on coins of various denominations, however, rarely on dimes. The same design for this Lafayette counterstamp is also known on small medalets with the Washington reverse.

These Lafayette and Lafayette with Washington counterstamped coins were the subject of one "adventure" in Dave Bowers' recently published More Adventures With Rare Coins. A few paragraphs of this adventure follow, as an appetizer to this book:

Most examples of counterstamped cents seen by me have Washington on the obverse of the host coin and Lafayette on the reverse, although, as it will be seen, this is more a "Lafayette" item than a "Washington" item-if priorities were assigned. I also have a pair of counterstamped half dollars, one with Lafayette on the obverse and the other with Washington on the obverse. It seems to me that while Lafayette was the preferred obverse, there was no hard and fast rule at the time these were made. ...

I have dearly loved this particular counterstamp for a long time and, following conventional wisdom (of which more will be related), considered Charles Cushing Wright to be the most likely candidate as the engraver. I spent quite a bit of time collecting a large file on Wright-quite enough to write a book about him. However, when and if this is ever done, the Lafayette / Washington medalet and counterstamps will be "scraps on the cutting room floor." Of this, more will be said. ...

In November 1999 Dr. John Kleeberg, at the Coinage of the Americas Conference, American Numismatic Society, provided revelatory information that the maker of this counterstamp was an engraver named Joseph Lewis, of New York City, Inot C.C. Wright!I ...

In his Coinage of the Americas Conference Dr. Kleeberg revealed that C.C. Wright had cut dies for some souvenirs for the 1824 visit, but these were for buttons made in Connecticut. If it is some small consolation for my long wild-goose chase after Wright as the author of the counterstamps, I am pleased that Kleeberg found the button information in a large archive of Lafayette material I had sent to him for study. I had never read the little brochure illustrating and describing the telltale buttons!