(No Date) Token HT-415E, Philadelphia on 1795 1 Reale PA

Coin Details

Description

This H. Rees counterstamp appears on a Spanish colonial 1 Reale silver coin dated 1795, representing the smallest denomination host coin in the Philadelphia blacksmith's counterstamp series. The diminutive 1 Reale—equivalent to approximately one-eighth of a dollar—was among the smallest silver coins circulating in American commerce, making it an unusual choice for counterstamping. The 1795 date of the host coin places its minting during the Spanish colonial period in the Americas, when the Mexico City and other colonial mints produced vast quantities of silver coinage from New World mines. By the 1830s, this coin had been circulating for approximately forty years, passing through countless hands in Spanish colonial, Mexican, Caribbean, and American commerce before receiving Rees's counterstamp in Philadelphia. Henry Rees's willingness to stamp even the smallest silver coins indicates a thoroughgoing advertising strategy—or a habitual practice of marking all coins that entered his possession. The complete Rees counterstamp series, spanning host coins from copper cents through silver dollars and across American and foreign denominations, provides one of the most comprehensive examples of a single merchant's counterstamping activity during the Hard Times era.

Rarity Notes

Rare. H. Rees counterstamp on 1795 Spanish colonial 1 Reale—smallest denomination in the series.

Cross References

Rulau HT-415E