Real or counterfeit Collins Legitimus stamp?

[droppoint1]

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[Square_peg]

They made so many variations that it's hard to be certain. The overall layout of the stampings leads me to suspect it might be an illegitimus. And either way it's very cool. In some ways a counterfeit is cooler than an original and likely rarer.

 

[droppoint1]

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[Steve Tall]

The Collins & Co Hartford,
Cast Steel Warranted, Legitimus stamp is similar to the unresolved Collins mark in the yesteryear tools, except for the Legitimus and crown stamp.

http://yesteryearstools.com/Yesteryears Tools/Collins Pt. 2.html

And the "unresolved" mark at that YesteryearsTools page says COLLINSNCO, not COLLINS&CO

None of the legitimate Legitimus stamps shown at that site have a crown with the points looking like separate petals on a flower, so I tend to believe those are fakes.

 

[droppoint1]

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[Square_peg]

There's not much value in an old axe whther it's counterfeit or not. Do whatever pleases YOU.

 

[droppoint1]

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[Steve Tall]

...if I knew the story about who made the axe and who stamped it...

Perhaps it was made in Sheffield, England, by the company of Charles Brown, which supplied axes sold in America that were stamped "Collins & Co, Hartford Cast Steel, Warranted", or similar markings, according to this 1857 court case in England, The Collins Company v. Brown :

from The Revised Reports: Being a Republication of Such Cases in the English Courts of Common Law and Equity, from the Year 1785, as are till of Practical Utility..., 1910, p. 215-221

 

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