In 1986 my dear Grandfather passed away from a massive stroke. While I'm adopted, he never treated me any different than if I was his biological grandson. He was truly dear to me. My grandparent's house was always a great stop for my buddies for sweet tea whenever we were thirsty! Anyway, I'll stop waxing nostalgic. During recent years my mom found that I was a coin collector. Funny thing is I remember her being horrified that I paid 30 dollars for a pretty MS 09 vdb cent. So she tells me that Grandpa had a whitman folder collection...she see's many key slots filled which of course is exciting. Reality is grandpa had lots of them filled with 40's coins...all good to me. Thing is, in the middle of all the worn and misplaced coins, there is a beautiful AU 1912-D. This will probably be my most adored coin...no matter the value of the others in my collection. My picks suck but at least the color is good!
Not only is that a lovely Lincoln, but it's a great sentimental memory. I have both of my parents and two sets of biological parents, and since my folks divorced and remarried I had four sets of grandparents, if you include step-grandparents. I was adopted by my stepfather after my parents' divorce, so his mother became my step-grandmother, and she was fantastic- every bit as wonderful as my biological grandmothers were (and they were awesome)! I was blessed in the grandparent department. My step-grandmother, "Grandmomma Dobbs", was responsible for starting me off in numismatics, so I owe her a debt of gratitude. She was born in 1909 so she would have been 108 this year if she were still with us. She was the last of my grandparents or step-grandparents to survive. I thought she'd make it to 100 but she didn't, quite. She passed away in the early- to mid-1990s (I forget the exact date). To give you an idea of how cool Grandmomma Dobbs was, there was this one time when we kids had made a rope swing that swung across this deep, ditchlike gully. None of the other adults would swing on it, but Grandmomma did, just as if she were one of us kids- and she had to have been well into her 70s at the time. She'd climb ladders to check out our treehouses, too. She had a wonderful spirit. Anyway, here's the coin I got from her - the one that started it all. I still have it. On Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, when I was not quite 11 years old, we were at my grandmother's house and I was asked to set the table for the upcoming feast. Grandmomma pointed out where the silverware drawer was in a huge old sideboard in the dining room of her grand old Atlanta house. In that drawer, I found a 1936 Mercury dime! It seemed incredibly ancient to me at the time... forty years old. Now forty years have elapsed since I found it. I also found a 1948 Franklin half that had been shot with a bullet, and a 1943 steel cent. (Grandmomma let me keep the steelie but not the Frankie- that was a souvenir of some uncle's marksmanship and had apparently been shot in the air, Annie Oakley style.) The 1936 Merc dime won't win any "best coin" competitions, but being the sentimental creature that I am, I kept the coin, and it survived the vicissitudes of the building, destruction, and rebuilding of so many of my collections over the years.
Here's one I found in my Grandpa collection, when he passed . 1974 D CN Obverse Discovery Coin: IDDDO-1 74D New IDDDR-MH/MD-DDR IDDP-1 Cross Reference: None Known. Attributed by: IDDD Thomas Kalantzis. Class: Obverse Class II Tripled. Reverse Master Hub/Master Die. Submitted by: Richard Stachowski. Description: Class II tripling seen on many letters of IN GOD WE TRUST. Wide split serifs and doubling seen on the rest of the letters. Wide but mushy spread on the upper left serif of the 1. Tripling on the 7. CCW spread on the T and Y of LIBERTY. (Earlier die stage/die state may show a small CCW spread on all of LIBERTY) Reverse Description: Master hub/ Master die DDR. Marker: Obverse Full R in LIBERTY. Eye pocket die scratches. Scratch to the left of thee last T of TRUST running SW/NE. Die scratch to the left of the R of LIBERTY running SW/NE. Die crack starting at the rim to the left of the one in date meandering onto the one, continuing NE through the 9 and 7 ending at the 4 in date. Reverse: Type 3. Dot sized die gouge inside and to the upper right of the O in DOLLAR. Date Recorded: 12/5/2013, CD. Population: 1. Comments: Obverse Stage B, has been abraded due to cracking on the die (Serfice crack at the base of the one in date). Mr Stachowski has the honor of being the first collector to send in the first tripled working die (TDO) for the 1974 D minted coin.
Thanks for the great story. I believe that love is as thick as blood. Knowing what little I do about my early years prior to adoption, I'm certain that I would be an entirely different person than I am now. And not in a good way. As for the sorry for our loss posts, thank you too. Though if anything coin collecting has re-assured me of, is that time marches on. Regardless of wealth, status or intelligence. We can only hope to have the affect that those we loved had on us, to carry our memories forward..even if just a bit longer in time.
