I was just thinking of how sometimes as a kids we think the silliest funniest things what are some of ours as kids around coins So as a kid(I am Canadain it matters a bit) I watch Mr. Rodgers alot (I was born in 80s so this is common) and so I knew "Trolly" quite well after all he would take us to the Neighbourhood of make-believe. Anyways until I was about 13 I figure he was so famous the US put him on their one Cent coin. That right I thought the Lincoln memorial was a trolly lol anyone else hav some good fun stories
I told this before but here it goes.... When I was a kid (around 12), I used to do odd jobs around my disabled Uncles house ( lawn, Garden ect..). I would spend most of my time in the Spring/Summer gardening for him. I often would dig up spent coal from back in the day, obviously. . I also would get lucky and dig up a coin or two and would get all excited, like it was buried treasure. He would say that the previous owner probably dropped the coins but there were more than just a couple, hmm? Often, I would dig up several as most were close to the surface and in reasonably nice shape. It wasn't until years later that I realized that I've been had! As a Metal Detectorist, most of my copper coins were in terrible shape. That's when I realized that all the coins in the garden were actually from his own collection. Most from the 20's, 30's and 40's! The Nickels, dimes, quarters, etc. were given to me in hand. Not many cents handed out and for a good reason.
I was a fully coin addicted kid. One day I found a Spanish Cobb replica (a poor one at that) on the playground at my school. I was in coin nirvana for quite some time after that. After all, we all know that pirates hid their booty on Oklahoma school yards, right? I worshiped that toy cobb for several years before I finally had to accept reality.
I remember a time long ago. I must have been nine or ten. I "found" a pirate's treasure map (actually, I drew it, crumpled it up, and rolled it around in the dirt, then rolled it up and put a string around it!). My younger brother and I went on a hunt in the woods to find the treasure! (Of course, there certainly WAS pirate's treasure in Eau Claire, Wisconsin!) Surprisingly, we never did find that treasure! I sometimes wonder if a real treasure is still there, and wish I still had that map!
When I was a kid silver dollars still circulated and someone told me that the 'S' mark meant that the coin was minted in San Francisco and the 'O' mark was for coins minted in nearby Oakland.
There was a Hardy Boy book I read back in the 50’s about hunting for a pirates treasure chest, been hooked on gold ever since
Can’t help but laugh at your thinking trolley’s were on the US Cent reverse. You see, I was born in the 1950’s and Trolly’s were in every day use where I lived. My mother and I had many a trip on them. When I went with my grandmother, well that was always the best. I’d help carry her purchases and the last thing she’d buy me was a hand sized bag of warm peanuts. Then it was take the trolly back home and walk 3 blocks to her house. My house was another block and a half away and things were safe then so I’d walk myself back home.
Coin related, during my early trips to coin shops I thought AU and BU both meant uncirculated. One was "brilliant" and the other was "average."
I wonder if that's where I got my idea to hunt for a treasure chest?!?! I didn't grow up in the 50s, but I might have read that book!
Didn't every kid make a treasure map? We did. I think in our case the idea came from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, published 1883. Maybe the Hardy Boys got it from that book, as it introduced a lot of the common pirate themes - treasure chests, maps marked with X, peg leg pirates with parrots on their shoulder.
There was an old skit with the Little Rascals where one character asks the other "Which coin do you want? The Dime or the Nickel?" Then he states, "Take the Nickel because it is bigger so it worth more. "
The closest I got to a treasure map was when my friend Jake (his dad was an architect) showed up with the blue prints to First National bank. The map showed the location of the sunken vault. He wanted me to help him tunnel down there. We were 10. Somehow the mission failed for reasons I forget. James
My mother was convinced that it was illegal to own gold coins in the early 1960s. She was astonished when she was at the coin counter at the Gimbels Department Store in New York, and they had "gold coins right out there for sale!" To clarify the law, until 1974, it was illegal to own gold coins that were dated after 1933. Anything before then was legal to own. That met that a coin like this this gold sovereign from British King George VI's corronation was illegal to own for United States citizens. U.S. citizens could not legally own this piece and store it abroad.
Mr and Mrs Hiram Grant. As for coins, I was introduced to the one cent piece, and then shown a nickel and told it was five cents. I sent some time wondering how they managed to squeeze five pennies into that nickel.
