I received this 1862 from my father's collection as a birthday gift and figured I'd share his story. It will be the CN piece for a 7070 I'm working on. My dad grew up in rural Massachusetts in the 50's and his mother did the accounting at a private school. She brought him home all the change and replaced anything he needed for his albums and he bought/traded for any missing dates. He ended up completing full date sets of IHC's and Wheat Lincolns. He says he remembers that the albums were 100% full but doesn't recall if they included S MM's for the IHC's, etc. What he does remember is trading them both away for a Mossberg 152 when he was fourteen! I've heard him lament this decision many times over the years but I can certainly understand why he did. He lived on a farm with 80 acres of land to roam and had his own horse, so I imagine trading the coins for a beautiful rifle to go out patrolling with would have been too much to resist. In any case, this 1862 was acquired later but it'll definitely be a great addition to the type collection and reminder of my dad. .....And I won't be selling it!
Wonderful declaration regarding Dad. I, as an youth (in his same shoes), would have done exactly the same thing...........
Gah, you're telling me. Too late. His mother's health failed and the land was sold to cover expenses... 80 acres in the Berkshires and it's all covered in beautiful vacation homes now. Such is life...
Nice story - I don't blame him for trading them. And a shame they had to sell the land. Thanks for sharing.
Ah well, if they hadn't sold he might have been sipping martinis in Cape Cod instead of leaving town to find work and meeting ma in a bowling alley in Denver. No complaints here. Lady Luck came back around on the coin front too when my G-Grandpa on her side left the Morgan/Peace collection which eventually came to me. Come to think of it, they probably only lasted through the 80's because my dad still had the old sting from his album trade.
Love the pastoral scene! And I love copper-nickel IHC's. As to the rifles in that vintage ad, "Mannlicher" has rather eerie echoes in American history. Particularly in Dealey Plaza, Dallas. So I'll just focus on the peaceful farm scene. It looks like some of the places I've spent time outdoors in, though I was doing a different kind of hunting and was armed with a different piece of equipment. Y'know, you should arm yourself with my preferred type of hunting equipment. You might bag some more IHCs.
I think he was mostly into shooting pop cans. He did let his brother's lady friend shoot it once and she shot a power line by accident and knocked out power to the whole area. I've considered the detecting route... would love to search with my little one when she gets a little older. Will have to look into what people have found in Western Washington.
