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***Auction Highlight*** Encased Postage 1862 Ayer's Cathartic Pills. 3c. EP-32A Long Arrows Graded

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:375.00 - 750.00 USD
***Auction Highlight*** Encased Postage 1862 Ayer's Cathartic Pills. 3c. EP-32A Long Arrows  Graded
***Auction Highlight*** Encased Postage 1862 Ayer's Cathartic Pills. 3c. EP-32A Long Arrows Graded vf35 By SEGS. The firm of James C. Ayer and Company was Gault's biggest single customer, advertising three different patent medicine products on these encasements. Had Gault been able to obtain a steady and large supply of stamps for his enterprise Ayer's business alone might have made Gault's venture a great business success.James Cook Ayer was born in Connecticut in 1818. On his father's death in 1825 young James was sent to Lowell, Massachusetts to live with his uncle, who had been mayor of the town and was a successful businessman there. After finishing Lowell High School Ayer wanted to enter college, but his family decided that he was more suited for a career in business. Accordingly, Ayer was apprenticed to Jacob Robbins, who owned an apothecary shop in Lowell. At the same time Ayer was working for Robbins he was studying medicine with a local doctor; eventually, Ayer gained an M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, styling himself as Dr. J.C. Ayer thereafter.Ayer was a hard worker and a quick learner, and by 1841 he bought Robbin's drugstore for $2,486.61 with a loan from his uncle, which he was able to repay three years later.Between 1855 and 1870 Ayer became the king of the patent medicine industry. His first success was with his Cherry Pectoral, an opium-based cough syrup flavored with cherry extract which claimed to be beneficial for lung problems. This was followed by his Cathartic Pills, a digestive remedy said to have had no harmful side effects, which were later packaged in an ornate paper wrapper complete with a list of "ingredients' whose names would confuse even a chemist; Ayer's Sarsaparilla, by far his best known product, a restorative beverage little different from any other sarsaparilla drink; Ayer's Ague Cure ("Warranted a speedy and certain cure for fever and ague and all malarial disorders"); and Ayer's Hair Vigor, which was supposed to bring back the original color to grey hair.Ayer's nostrums were little different from many others available at the time. What made Ayer's venture successful was his understanding of the power of advertising. Together with his brother Frederick, who joined the enterprise in 1855, Ayer advertised his medicines in newspapers, by free gifts to purchasers, and through freely distributed flyers and pamphlets. By 1871 Ayer advertised his products in nearly 2,000 newspapers; a little later he gave away 25 million free almanacs in a single year. The purchase of a complete printing plant enabled the firm to publish advertising cards of its own, and to hold down the costs of doing so. When the Boston & Lowell Railroad raised its rates Ayer built his own Lowell & Andover line, connecting to Boston, which opened in 1874.James C. Ayer and Company expanded their interests to include timber lands in Florida; a part ownership in the Lake Superior Iron Company; and ownership of textile mills in Lowell. The company owned a share of the New York Tribune, an investment that encouraged favorable editorial opinion. In Ayer's honor, the town of Groton Junction, Massachusetts was renamed Ayer in 1871; the family donated the town hall. In his later years James Ayer went insane, contemporaries believing his insanity to be caused by overwork, and business affairs were conducted by his brother Frederick. At the time of his death in 1878, Ayer was involved in an undertaking to build a canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. When a local government proved unwilling to cooperate, Ayer became involved in a coup attempt against it.The company continued after James Ayer's death into the 1920s. The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, however, sounded the death knell for many patent medicine manufacturers. The Act curtailed unsupported medical claims and restricted the use of alcohol, opium derivatives, and other dangerous substances. After that date Ayer's products faded into obscurity, despite a loyal following among many members of the public. Ayer's fall took longer because the firm was larger and better financed than most others in the patent medicine industry of the 19th and early 20th centuries.Ayer's Cathartic Pills encasements are known in one cent, three cent, five cent, ten cent, twelve cent, twenty-four cent and thirty cent denominations; a ninety cent piece in the Massachusetts Historical Society Collection in 1939 was counterfeit. All are known with either long or short arrows beneath the word PILLS on the back. Generally the short arrows varieties are more available than their large arrows counterparts. Along with the Short Arrows one cent and Long Arrows three cents, the Short Arrows three cents is one of the most frequently encountered varieties of Ayer's Cathartic Pills encasements. The present example is ideal for a type collection where a single specimen is required to represent this issuer.