Understanding the Stone Mountain Half Dollar counterstamps necessitates that one understand and study the Harvest Campaign designed by the SMCMA to increase sales.  The campaign was also designed to create unique coins that would command a price above the current $1.00 price.  A side benefit was to involve the State governors in the process and increase interest through advertisement of the process.  The whole campaign was, unfortunately, designed to sell thousands of coins at a time that the association needed to sell tens or even hundreds of thousands.

 

The process is reflective of the post war times and created incentives that would have little or no interest today involving medals, festive balls, and racial limitations.  But apparently it achieved some of its intended results because we have the G.L. and S.L. counterstamps to prove it.  To understand how different the times were one only has to read the brochure cover for the campaign.

Confederate

 Memorial

              Appreciation

                Contest

 

In Connection With The

 

HARVEST CAMPAIGN

 

Under the direction of the Southern

Governors to complete the sale

of the South's allotment of

 

CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL

HALF DOLLARS

 

 

 

An Opportunity That Leads To

 

FAME   :   HONOR   :   DISTINCTION

Coins were to be struck for different States, primarily recognizing those who joined the secession movement.  Those were Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.  But then some were also struck for Oklahoma and Washington, D. C.  The D. C. coins were probably as a concession to politics and sales over historical accuracy.  Oklahoma was a territory during the war and there were several battles fought there with each side claiming victory in about an even number of battles.  With resettlements from the east there were Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee people settled there.  From our research it seems that the Native Americans were almost always aligned with the Union forces.  But it is interesting that the state with the largest number of surviving coins is Oklahoma.

 

Only one coin for Missouri have ever surfaced so their sales success may have been limited or just not participated in this sales event.  We know that for general coin sales they were assigned a quota of 200,000 coins and the state chairman was Mrs. Frank S. Leach.

 

In a nod to the times and a process that would appeal to young women of the day the contest process was as follows:

 

• Each State was given a quota of coins to sell and the Governors of each State accepted those quotas
• The contest was open to girls between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, whether married or single
• Within each State, every city and town was given a quota
• Every girl who sold the most coins within a city, town, or county was declared the local winner (if also deemed the most attractive by some unnamed criteria)
• The first girl was to receive a gold mounted lavaliere coin and the second girl a silver mounted lavaliere coin (the G.L. and S.L. counterstamps) together with an official certificate of appreciation from the Governor
• By December 10 the Governor of each State was to hold a ball for the two prize winning girls from each county
• At the ball two girls were chosen to represent the State at the national ball based on personal beauty, culture, charm and the work they did in selling coins
• The SMCMA was to hold the "All-Southern Confederate Costume Ball" in Atlanta on January 19, 1926 where all the State level winners came together for a final recognition event
• The grand prize winner was to receive a bust of herself carved by Augustus Lukeman (then the lead carver on the mountain)
• A point system was used to determine how sales were to be factored into the selection process but the tie breaker of extra points for "personal beauty and general attractiveness of personality" was always looming in the background

 

The actual ball was delayed until January 24, 1926 and was apparently well attended.  Newspaper accounts were filled with commentary we might expect from the era, but of historical interest for our work is the count of the States sending representatives and contest winners.  The pre-event communications sited as many as fifteen States in attendance, which apparently included Washington, D. C.  Listed in the Atlanta Constitution paper as sponsors, and we assume these were the State level winners, were:

 

(Data rearranged alphabetically by State, with represented City/Region listed in parenthesis for each winner)

Alabama - Miss. Carolyn Moore (Eufaula) and Miss. Ethel Chandler (Montgomery)

Arkansas - Miss Christine Richardson (Walnut Ridge) and Miss. Gladys Harper (Little Rock)

Florida - Miss. Virginia Davis (Pensacola) and Miss. Norma F. Griffin (Kissimmee)

Georgia - Miss. Eleanor Wright (Augusta) and Mrs. Carlton Wade (Cuthbert)

Kentucky - Miss. Leila Mae Stiles (Frankfort) and Miss Gloria Bradley (Sterns)

Louisiana - Miss. Fannie Bailey (Baton Rouge)

Mississippi - Miss. Callie Dee Barber (Mount Olive) and Miss. Josie Wolfe (Columbia)

Missouri - Miss. Ethel Hope (Saint Louis) and Miss. Jane Harwood (Kansas City)

North Carolina - Miss. Carrie Springs (Charlotte) and Miss. Rose Corrigan (Asheville)

Oklahoma - Miss. Martha Morehead (Oklahoma City) and Miss. Ruth Crow (Norman)

South Carolina - Mrs. N. Burton Bass (Lane) and Miss. Sarah A. Richardson (Columbia)

Tennessee - Miss. Donna Fisher (Memphis) and Miss. Finley Elder (Clarksville)

Texas - Miss. Merle Neville (Houston) and Miss. Elizabeth Wroe (Austin)

Virginia - Miss. Emma Ralph (Kellar) and Miss. Marie Anne Scott (Richmond)

Washington, D. C. - Miss. Evelyn Howe and Miss. Anne C. Boyle

There are several interesting things to be learned from these articles about coins sales:

 

• Of the twenty-nine winners only two were married indicating that the interest was mainly from younger women.
• There were representatives listed from Missouri which would indicate sales of numbered coins.  But there is the lone known counterstamped coin.
• Only Louisiana has a single representative listed.  Louisiana counterstamped coins are not common but there are enough to believe that reasonable sales of coins took place.  We believe this was a reporter oversight since the article references thirty and not twenty-nine sponsors.
• Most of the sales representatives seem to be from the larger cities in each state but that may be opportunity from population numbers alone.

 

And then there emerged from the ball a significant change in the results.  Rather than a single winner all were declared winners because apparently picking a single winner would have been impossible.  It seems to us that given the history of the SMCMA it is much more likely that the grand prize of a bust carved by Augustus Lukeman and a trip to Europe was financially impossible.  An easy way to dodge the required prize was to not award it, but that is conjecture on our part.

The SMCMA always struggled for money to keep the project alive.  So when additional coins were needed for a state several examples of reuse exist.  Of the twenty-one varieties PCGS recognizes there are three that involve the creation of additional coins for Texas by repunching coins from other States.

 

The double counterstamps are TEX./VA., TEXAS/VA, and TEXAS/LA.  This raises the possibility of doubled serial numbers depending on when the numbers versus the letters were added.  For Texas there might just be two examples of a numbered coin, one with and one without the double counterstamp.  The example shown here is the TEXAS/VA with the X overlayed on the V, with TE added before and S added after the original VA.  The lack of a hard strike on the A makes this one easy to recognize

As sales schemes came and went so did marketing ideas.  One that was a mystery and now has been solved are the addition of the letters G.L or S.L.  These designations were for Gold Lavaliere and Silver Lavaliere, two levels for those helping with the sales efforts.  These coins were also struck with the State designation and a chapter number.  Another issue is that these coins were often worn as necklaces, so they could be in a bezel or have a loop soldered directly to the coin.  This leads to many coins being disqualified from third-party grading because they are considered to be damaged.

 

In addition to these two designations there were coins struck with U.D.C. (United Daughters of the Confederacy).  Some single letters A., F., K., N., or T. have also surfaced.  These designations are not yet understood so far as our research has determined.  Documentation would also indicate that coins designated for veterans could have been made, but none of these have been seen either.

Where there is money to be made there can always be bad actors, and the Stone Mountain counterstamps can attract some.  Unfortunately creating a counterstamp is  not all that hard if you have the correct punches.  If one has questions the solution is only but authenticated PCGS coins or seek an expert opinion through a disinterested third party.  The saving grace for this issue is that to now there have been few collectors and the set is so expensive and elusive that few even try.  So disreputable people have little incentive to create fakes that have such a limited market.