Unlocking the Mystery of the Counterstamped Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial Half Dollar

The Stone Mountain Memorial Half Dollar is a Commemorative Coin produced by the U.S. Mint as legal tender in 1925 and is of the standard weight and fineness of their regular-issued silver counterparts. There were four Coin Campaigns or Movements from June 3, 1925 to March 31, 1928 to market the 2,313,484 Stone Mountain Memorial Half Dollar coins received from the U.S. Mint by the Stone Mountain Confederate Monumental Association (SMCMA) or its agent the Federal Reserve Banking system in the first few months of 1925 and distributed to about 4,000 community banks before their national release date of July 3, 1925.

There were several methods used to raise funds to emblazon into Stone Mountain a giant Memorial granite carving to "honor the valor of the soldier of the south" of the Civil War.

Selling the Stone Mountain Coin to the public is the most well-known fundraising method. The "Counterstamped" Stone Mountain Memorial Coin is a marketing tool used in several ways to help sell the regular issued Stone Mountain Memorial Half Dollar. The "Counterstamped" Stone Mountain Coin is a regular issued Stone Mountain Memorial Half Dollar punched with a metal die at specific and various locations on the reverse at a 1925 cost of $.03 to $.04 cents per coin to have initials and numbers stamped on it as well as the State abbreviation the coin represents. These die stamps were not punched at or by the U.S. Mint but were incused by others at the request of the SMCMA or its representatives. Five of the six major Categories of the 1925 "Counterstamped" Stone Mountain Half Dollar Coins are incused and all six were used to market the regular issued non-counterstamped Commemorative Half Dollar. The net proceeds from the regular issued Stone Mountain Half Dollar purchase price of $1 from the SMCMA were used to help emblazon Stone Mountain with the giant Memorial granite carving. In the end it is believed there was not a community in the Southern States so remotely located as not to be aware of the regular issued Stone Mountain Coin or the "Monument to the Valor of the Soldier of the South" because of the publicity produced by the "Counterstamped" Coin.

This book is to help unlock the mystery of the "Counterstamped" Coin marketing uses-deciphering their incused die stamps codes, estimating the potential "Counterstamped Coin" population, estimating the actual number of coins die stamped and give some idea of the total that exist today.