NNP

In Greg Bennick’s continuing interview series for the Newman Numismatic Portal, Bill Groom speaks on the history of counterstamps, particularly those associated with 19th century American merchants. Groom’s database includes over 2,700 counterstamp issues, and he notes that thousands more remain to be attributed. Bill speaks about his early collecting experiences in Jamestown, NY, including a rare Civil War token cherrypicked from a Gimbel’s department store. This interview further touches on Bill’s research on Civil War tokens.

The video version of this interview incorporates images of several hundred pieces from Groom’s database. Illustrated here is a counterstamp of the Ford Motor Company logo, on a 1902 Barber dime. Gregory Brunk, in American and Canadian Countermarked Coins, quotes the March 1958 Numismatist: “The tale of the Ford Motor Company offering a new car in return for certain specified coins is an old one that crops up periodically….”

Link to Greg Bennick’s interview of Bill Groom on Newman Portal: https://archive.org/details/billgroominterview
Transcripts of Greg Bennick interviews on Newman Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/548964 
Link to the Civil War Token Society home page: http://cwtsociety.com/