"Both terms should be used on official pieces, but to a goldsmith's or engraver's test, I would use the term counterstamp."

"I am on the E-Sylum mailing list for almost a year now, and will finally be able to contribute to your fine journal!

As a coin collector with much interest in counterstamped coins, I have come in touch with the 'counterstamp vs. countermark' discussion quite often. Yes, it is true that the words are mostly used interchangeably by cataloguers. I go along with Alan Luedeking's definition, that is, defining a counterstamp as having an 'official' background. This is also backed by Burzio's 'Diccionario de la Moneda Hispanoamericana', in which a clear distinction is made between a 'resello' (indeed the Spanish equivalent to counterstamp) applied by a governmental entity and containing some official coat of arms or state symbol, and a 'contramarca', which is more generally defined as any kind of number, symbol, letter, or monogram, applied by individuals or political factions for various reasons.

Given the colorful history behind most counterstamps and countermarks, one can easily imagine that it is not always possible to make a clear distinction there.

The definite work on counterstamps in German (Ehrend/Schreier: Gegenstempel auf Muenzen, Speyer, 1975) does not differentiate between counterstamps and countermarks. In German, the word is 'Gegenstempel' (old-fashioned: Kontermarke), where 'Stempel' signifies both 'stamp' and 'die'. Ehrend/Schreier explicitly exclude 'Punzungen' (punch marks) from the vast field of counterstamps, that is, they don't count test or validation marks, like the Chinese chops, or assay marks like the ones found on Japanese obans or Brasilean 'Sampex' bars.

Thus, the countermark vs. counterstamp discussion does not exist in Germany, simply because there is only one term! I hope this has been helpful, and I am looking forward to the replies by other readers."