special announcement for April 1st
Archaeologists have discovered a hoard of countermarks which
are not with the coins. This is unusual as countermarks are usually on coins.
It is believed that these were either trial strikes, the ancient countermarker
could not obtain host coins to stamp, or simply the person missed the coin when
stamping.
In ancient times coins were sometimes countermarked for use
by Legions or to refer to a new emperor. In these cases where only the
countermark is left and not the coin – probably the ancient coin maker ran out
of coins.
