Official "Post A Counterstamp" Thread....

Looks like the stamp of some humbuggar ...

This is a single-punch stamp, not one atop another. The Santa and the X design are inter-woven.

I have a friend who's a low budget horror film director/producer, I should share your idea with him!

I think this is the most interesting counterstamp that I have. The envelope is it's home.

I could not find much information on the web other than it seems to be rather rare.

Brunk listed but failed to attribute this counterstamp in his last edition.

John H. Metz is listed in Philadelphia in the late 1850's. He ran a tavern at the northeast corner of Jefferson & federal Streets. In those days, taverns were akin to hotels in that they often had upstairs rooms to rent. Metz may have preferred to use the word "Hotel" so as to upgrade the lower class term of "Tavern." Then too, the word "Hotel" takes up less space on the small cent planchets. The Flying Eagle cents were probably fresh from the mint when Metz stamped them.

It was relatively easy for me to discover Metz's whereabouts. Most of these early counterstamps emanated from Philly, NY City and Boston. I tend to search these cities in that order. Although there are ever so many first names that begin with the letter "J", John and James are the most common by far. Then, the intersected street names for John H. Metz's tavern made the attribution of this counterstamp a slam-dunk.

This is a cool piece that I'd value in the $100-$150 range; this, now that it's no longer a maverick.

I would agree with the interesting factor.

I don't collect counter stamps but I sure would be proud to have this in my collection!

Very nice!