Counter Stamp Question

Agree with ExoMan, engraving and counterstamping are two different things. Although there are counterstamped examples of "love tokens" the engraved ones are the ones known collectively as love tokens.

Bruce

 

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The hole looks fairly neatly drilled in the coin. The roughness is mostly from the length of time the piece was worn. May must have been his sweetheart for some time.

Bruce

 

The top one is 1842, M. Nash Feb 1 or 9. The second one, well that's really damaged. It was stamped twice to form an X on both sides. It's hard to read even in hand. The punch was so large it's even on the rims. Here's a few other photos if it helps.

 

Maybe the HC was an experimental 'half cent' mint design

 

I've known members to take a break from CT before, but six years? Where have you been since joining in Sept of 2014?
Finding unusual coins is always fun for me and I keep them as oddities whether they have added value or not. Good luck in the future.

 

One of the biggest counterstampers of all time, fretboard. There were so many of their stamps circulating that they were considered a nuisance by some English politicians. Now THAT would be the best promotion they could hope for.

Nearly all Pears counterstamps are on French coins because of the prohibition on defacing British currency. Once in awhile you'll see one on an Italian coin too.

Bruce

 

The M. Nash with the date might be his birthday or another important date in his life...Feb 1/9 and the date of the coin, 1842. The closest I can get to the second one is possibly "Strayer" as a last name. Just a guess on that one, Collecting Nut.

Bruce

 

Thanks for checking @BRandM

 

Pears Soap was a British family firm which became famous in the 19tnh Century for its sophisticated marketing, such as persuading well known artists to paint pictures with a bar of Pears Soap somewhere in the frame. The most famous was Bubbles, painted by Sir John Millais of a young boy blowing soap bubbles, for which Pears made £2200.
Another marketing trick concerned the 10 centimeters piece of Napoleon III

 

(Hit the wrong button! )
... 10 centimes, which were the same size as the British penny and roughly the same value, so it was often used and accepted as such.
When the French emperor Napoleon III was forced into exile after losing the Franco-Prussian was of 1870 - and losing Alsace and Lorraine to the Prussians, Pears seized the opportunity to order 500,000 coins and counterstamped them and gave away one coin with each piece of soap.
This was so successful that the British government quickly passed a law banning
the circulation and use of foreign currency.

The French too also counterstamped N.III' s coins, often with name Sedan, the final disastrous battle that the French lost, or else converting the emperor's head into some insulting shape, or put a German pickelhauber helmet on his head. It is a very interesting niche market

Pears by the way was bought by Unilever, and Pears Soap is still made by Unilever Hindustani

 

Thanks for the detailed history of a very interesting company and advertising piece, Bardolph.

There are actually 2 varieties of these counterstamps...both very minor. The slogan with or without periods. It always surprised me that there weren't more as a large number of dies must have been cut to produce so many coins.

Bruce

 

Some anti-Napoleon III coins:

 

Another couple:

 

Good to see that you are back, Bruce

 

Thanks, Frank. I'm in the process of moving so have been busy with all that stuff.

Bruce

 

Well, I hope to see you back here soon!