Palestine (British): 1944 bronze 5-mils, saved by WW2 US Merchant Marine Captain Raymond Fulshaw

Palestine (British): 1944 bronze 5-mils, saved by WW2 US Merchant Marine Captain Raymond Fulshaw

PCGS MS64 RB. Cert. #38640445.

Numista-7918, Krause-Mishler-3a.

Diameter: 20 mm. Weight: 2.9 g. Mintage: 1,000,000.

This coin of British Palestine would be interesting enough in its own right, but it also has a colorful backstory. According to Josh Zachman, from whom I bought it:

"It came from the estate of a Merchant Mariner who traveled the world during World War 2. I bought it from the man's daughter. It was in a box of several hundred coins from probably about 20 different countries. He apparently was in Palestine and got these shortly after they were minted and he had probably 15 other Palestinian coins, although this one and the 20-mils were the two best."

Josh then confirmed with the man's daughter that his name was Captain Walter Raymond Fulshaw and he had achieved his Master's license at age 26. I found Captain Fulshaw's obituary online.

Though Captain Fulshaw wasn't famous, I thought his association with this coin was worth preserving. Backstories can be interesting, don't you think? Just imagine the wartime travels of Captain Fulshaw and his coins.

I paid Josh $100 for this coin, which seems reasonable considering the auction history of similar examples. Bizarrely, one fingerprinted MS65 example sold for $1,762.50 at Heritage in 2014! I wonder what the story behind that was!

Ex-Josh Zachman. Prior provenance to USMM Captain Walter Raymond Fulshaw (1924-2010).





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