MEL WACKS' TURKEY COUNTERSTAMP

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V17 2014 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 17, Number 7, February 16, 2014, Article 11

MEL WACKS' TURKEY COUNTERSTAMP

In his Numismatic News article, Clifford Mishler wrote this about a coin he'd found with a counterstamp of a Turkey:

"I suppose I will never know the who, why or how many were similarly counterstamped."

Jonathan Brecher writes:

Ah, a challenge like that is a red cape waved in front of an E-Sylum reader! That is a Mel Wacks product.

Jonathan provided a link to the Token and Medal Society web site; specifically an article from the TAMS Journal by Mel Wacks with the following information. Thanks! -Editor

"Considering the success of my first counterstamped coin, just a few months later I created another one. This was issued on Thanksgiving and appropriately honored the turkey. The coin chosen was the 1961 Proof Benjamin Franklin Silver Half Dollar. Why? Because Franklin had proposed that the national bird should be the turkey (the bald eagle won out). A turkey was counterstamped over the Liberty Bell (just to the left of the "winning" eagle).

A full color reproduction of John James Audubon's engraving (1830) of a wild turkey is featured on the envelope, along with the following quote: "The turkey is a bird of courage and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who would presume to invade his farmland with a red coat on," with the facsimile signature Benj. Franklin. The postage used was the 3¢ Wild Turkey Wildlife Conservation stamp and the 13¢ Bicentennial 1776-1976 stamp featuring a bust of Franklin. And, appropriately, the cancellation reads "TURKEY, TX 79261 NOV 25 PM 1976." The back of each envelope was printed with a serial number, and "LIMITED EDITION of 500." My records indicate a mintage of 200. "

Jeff Kelley writes:

His subsequent issues honoring various events and milestones were done using dies which produced devices in relief against a flat background, but this one was a more traditional incused style counterstamp.

To read the complete article, see: The Counterstamped Coins of Mel Wacks (www.tokenandmedal.org/Journal/Journal_files
/Counterstamped_Coins_of_Mel_Wacks.pdf)

Thanks also to Ralf Böpple and others who wrote in on this topic. -Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: TURKEY COUNTERSTAMP ON A FRANKLIN HALF DOLLAR (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n06a27.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum

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