Chop marks on coins

Depending on particular technique coins said to have been "chopmarked", "countermarked" and "counterstamped".

[1] The earliest chopmarks are found on bronze coins of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty.

The purpose of such chopmarks has been debated, with one theory suggesting it was a way to mark the premium full sized cash coins when compared to the diminutive small picis cash which were minted during the Wanli era.

[2] Starting with the 18th century, a number of European, American and Japanese silver coins (generically known as the trade dollar) began circulating in the Far East.

[3] Chop marks were also used on copper-alloy U.K. Large Pennies, U.S. Large Cents and other copper coins of Europe, Central, South and North America and have Hindu, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic nation's chopmarks as well as English alphabet chop marks from British and American Merchants in Hong Kong from the 1830s to 1960s when world silver coins and large pennies from many European and British Empire nations gave up their colonies and their coinage became demonetized.