NNP

My article in this month's issue of The Numismatist was on a mysterious counterstamp that has shown up on ten coins so far, including a half dozen gold coins, a rare undertype as a class. The coins all bear the small and quite precisely made EVERMAN mark and with only one exception are all dated in the 1850s.

The counterstamps have been traditionally attributed to California primarily on the basis of one coin: an 1852 Augustus Humbert $50 octagonal "slug," an astonishing undertype for any counterstamp. However, the person to whom this mark was assigned, a WIlliam Everman, was actually a miner who got caught up in a murder over a stolen watch and was hanged in 1853. Considering that several of the coins are dated 1854, 1855, and 1856, it certainly couldn't be him. However, there is a better candidate: a silversmith in Huntingdon, Tennessee by the name of Lewis Everman who worked in the 1850s.

What's interesting is that after the article went to press, I found an 1866 business directory listing for Everman & Spence, jewelers in Jackson, Tennessee, one county over, so it's possible Everman moved to a bigger town and partnered up. I am continuing to dig into Everman and hope that perhaps someday a well-documented piece of flatware with that mark can be definitively tied to the counterstamp. Research is never-ending and it's what I love about numismatics.