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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;BRandM, post: 1339645, member: 22729&quot;][ATTACH]154009.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]154010.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I picked up this nice Philadelphia counterstamp on E-bay a week or so ago and thought it would interest some of you because of the history behind it and the nice combination of lettering and graphics. For some reason counterstamps from Philly draw a lot of interest from collectors, and when they come up for bid always bring decent money. They usually sell for from $300 to $500 or more. One example on an 1807 Draped Bust Quarter sold for $690 in September, 2010, but that&#039;s probably high because of its provenance (Roy Van Ormer / Anthony Terranova) and the host coin it&#039;s stamped on.</p><p><br /></p><p>Though scarce, these pieces aren&#039;t considered rare as there are about 20 examples known. All but a few are on Spanish 2-Reales like this one. All of the examples I&#039;ve seen are on heavily worn coins. The latest date is 1838, but a large majority date from the 1770&#039;s to about 1810. Despite the wear, the stamps are generally well struck as they probably weren&#039;t applied until the 1840&#039;s. These large Spanish coins were plentiful well into the 1850&#039;s and because of their size were perfect for applying counterstamps to. The heavily worn ones were chosen especially as the counterstamp didn&#039;t have to compete with the coin&#039;s design to be read. One characteristic of my example is the broken &quot;F&quot; in &quot;Flanagan&#039;s&quot;. I&#039;ve seen other examples with this broken die before, but don&#039;t know if they&#039;re all like this or not.</p><p><br /></p><p>Robert Flanagan ran the Lyon&#039;s Hotel in Philadelphia from about 1835 until 1860. The 112 N. 6th St. address changed to 159 N. 6th St. in 1858 when city streets were renumbered, so these coins wouldn&#039;t have been stamped after that date. Interestingly,159 N. 6th St. is now part of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank complex. Flanagan had a bar in his establishment called Vulcan Hall that, apparently, offered Flanagan&#039;s Punch as it&#039;s speciality drink. I&#039;d love to know what was in it, but whatever it was made from I&#039;ll bet it would have grown hair on a hairless cat. The advertisement for Lyons Hotel appeared in the 1835 Philadelphia City directory. Comments are welcome and as always thanks for looking.</p><p><br /></p><p>Bruce[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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