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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;BRandM, post: 2214146, member: 22729&quot;]I was very lucky to have won this counterstamp from Steve Hayden&#039;s recent Mail Bid Sale. I&#039;ve loved these stamps for as long as I can remember, but have never seen one offered before now. It&#039;s no surprise, since there are only two examples documented, and it being a very popular early American classic stamp, makes it elusive at best.</p><p><br /></p><p>Philip Apple was a Philadelphia coppersmith from 1805 until his retirement in 1839. There&#039;s very little historical reference to him that I could find. According to past research (Kauffman 1968: 261) Apple had a second shop in West Chester, Chester Co., PA in the 1820s. I couldn&#039;t confirm this in my own research, so Kauffman must have found documentation that I couldn&#039;t. I studied several histories of the city and county, but found no reference to him.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are two other varieties of his product stamps known, one without the eagle or the word &quot;Phila&quot; and a second without the eagle. These are extremely rare as well, only one example of each being documented</p><p><br /></p><p>Another interesting diagnostic of this example...on an 1818 Large Cent... is evidence within the stamp of imminent die failure. If you look closely, you&#039;ll see a number of die cracks within the lettering as well as a weakness near the tip of the eagle&#039;s right wing. I would guess that the punch broke near the time he struck this specimen. It would be interesting to examine the second piece to see if the punch was in a better or worse condition at that point. It&#039;s not likely to happen, because the chances of ever seeing it[ATTACH=full]432947[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]432948[/ATTACH] are remote.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was determined to add this one to my collection and, fortunately, was able to. I paid dearly for it, but it was worth every penny. It also has an impressive provenance... Ex Dave Bowers, plate coin for both Brunk&#039;s and Rulau&#039;s references, and can be traced back to a Coin Galleries auction in November, 1989.</p><p><br /></p><p>Bruce[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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