I watched that new Digger show last night.. yea yea.. but they broached the subject of "tokens" that were used when actual coinage was scarce.. Maybe one of those?
hard times tokens were typically countermarked by a merchant.
The Houck's Panacea tokens from Baltimore were pretty famous examples..
I think many of the center holed cents were simply used as washers when nailing something like leather to a piece of wood.
It would keep the nail head from tearing the leather