why is my morgan stamped with 97???

[chong2]

just picked this one up,anyone know why its stamped with 97 all over it, its what caught my attention, on front and back.

 

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[jeff of pa]

Counter stamp.

Unfortunately 97 is Not enough to I.D. the Reason.

 

[romeo-1]

That's a shameful thing to do to a Morgan...the stamps do not appear to be very old judging by the patina. Someone just got stamp happy...

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

It was assayed in a foreign country. Back in the days of silver & gold standard you could get rich transferring precious metal coins from where the silver or gold market was soft to where it was strong. U.S. coins were not pure silver, but some other countries were. China, for one, was sharp enough to limit the influx of foreign currency and they had to have a "chop" mark. I believe Spain and many other countries did the same. When vendors saw the assay stamp they could instantly figure the value of foreign currency by weight alone.

 

[chong2]

i know they did that with the reales, but kinda thought someone did it with this morgan too