People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1893 — New Advertising Seheme. [ARTICLE]

New Advertising Seheme.

Loimnsport Advance. Among the latest and most effective of the many ingenious advertising devices are “stickers.” They are circular bits of paper with advertisements on the face and mufflage on the back. Made by the lick of the tongue to adhere to the reverse of a dollar, one of these little plasters is just big enough to fit inside of the milled rim. Every dollar that comes into the hands of a merchant supplied with “stickers” is promptly “stuck” so that one side reads “Take me back to Flubb Dubb’s and get $d worth of goods” or “Return me to Griggsby’s and get a bargain.” The idea is very striking but it promises to be promptly curtailed as it has been pronounced illegal under the statute forbidding the defacement of United States money. The “stickers” originated at Columbus Ohio, and the inventors suggest “that shopkeepers had better make haste to avail themselves of this novel method of advertisng before a law is passed forbidding it.”

Already the banks have been so bothered by it that many have utterly refused to accept money so defaced, while the treasury department has issued notice that it will not accept or redeem any of the coins. They can, of course, be made legal tender again by removing the stickers but this requires from ten to twelve hours soaking and considerable care. Counterfeiters have availed themselves of the sticker by making one side apparently good coin while the other, of common lead, is covered with one of the advertisements. Many district attorneys in various parts of the country have already threatened to prosecute merchants using the stickers, and the business will be brought to an abrupt close?