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Message:: [QUOTE="BRandM, post: 1908342, member: 22729"]I'm not sure this one was even meant to be an advertisement Sam. More likely he wanted to see how his stamp struck-up and applied it to the coin four times -one on the obverse also. One or two of them are poor strikes so he did a couple more to get a better feel of how much pressure he'd need to use to get a good impression on his plate. Generally, counterstamps meant to advertise were struck on heavily worn circulating coins so that the stamp wouldn't get "lost" in the coin's design. There wasn't any law in those days against mutilating coins in the U.S., unlike in some European countries. The French, English and I think the Italians forbade the practice, so to get around the prohibition, merchants would stamp coins from other countries that circulated freely in theirs.  Most of these laws were passed in the later part of the 19th century. Nearly all of the "Pear's Soap" counterstamps -tens of thousands of them-were struck on French coins even though Pear's Soap was an English company. Likewise, a large number of French companies advertised on English coins such as "Epicerie Moderne" and "Le Picotin Aperitif". Bruce[/QUOTE]