(1830s) Token HT-A168, Boston on Italy 1813b 5l MA

Coin Details

Description

This counterstamp from Boston, Massachusetts was applied to an Italian 5 Lire coin from 1813, creating an unusually exotic host-coin-and-counterstamp combination. The Italian coin's presence in Boston commerce reflects the international nature of the city's shipping trade, which brought coins from every maritime nation to New England's ports. The 1813 Italian 5 Lire would have been a Napoleonic-era coin, minted during the period when Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy issued coinage with his portrait. By the 1830s, such coins had traveled the Mediterranean and Atlantic trade routes to reach Boston, where they circulated alongside American, British, French, and Spanish coins in a genuinely multinational monetary environment. The choice to counterstamp an Italian coin rather than a more common American or Spanish piece was accidental—the coin simply happened to be in the merchant's cash box when the stamping was done—or it was deliberate, using an unusual host coin to create a distinctive and memorable advertising piece.

Rarity Notes

Rare. Boston counterstamp on Italian 1813 5 Lire. Unusual foreign host coin.

Cross References

Rulau HT-A168