My buddy found this in circulation near Syracuse NY about 20 years ago. He passed from cancer 4 months ago. Promised to post it for y’all to see. RIP David. And I know @paddyman98 will love it
Sorry to hear about your friend. He found this in circulation? Man, I wish I could be so lucky. Although, that has the look of something which has been in collections for the last hundred years, not circulating..... To find that "in circulation" makes me suspect funny business.
Found in change after a hard night. He thought it was Canadian at first as we have a lot of Canadian circulating here
Tons of Immigrants, here in Buffalo, My Grandfather would come across a lot of foreign currency in the early 20th.
Here's some history on Alfonso XIII of Spain, the Infante on the coin. Alfonso_XIII_of_Spain At the time of this coinage, he was known as the "Infant King". As he got older, that changed to the "Toddler King". You can see Alfonso's growth from baby to adult in the portraiture on those coins. I have several of these various types. You can also follow the same type of "growth" of the Kings and Queens of Great Britain and the Netherlands, to name a few. I find stuff like that very interesting.
@Heavymetal very sorry to hear of the passing of your friend. It was incredibly thoughtful of him to bequest that memory upon you. Treasure it as you did your friendship. RIP
Cool babyhead Alfonso. Interesting story, about the infant king. Per Wikipedia: Edit- aha- @Hookman beat me to it. Especially cool for a circulation find. Condolences for your friend. This post is a worthy memorial.
"Just after he was born, he was carried naked to the Spanish prime minister on a silver tray." They sure knew how to do it back in them days, didn't they?
I'll say! Hope they warmed the tray slightly, though. Royal baby bottoms probably do not like cold silver trays! You can't have the king crying through ceremonies, after all.
Thank you all for your kind words. David was also a collector, mostly filling books from circulation. He did trade some with friends back in the 70’s. I have a couple of his Mercury dimes in my book. And yes, I have to believe it was liberated from a collection before entering circulation. The size of a quarter, it fit right in with the crowd
You know what? Maybe they expected him to cry. Maybe they believed that the louder the cry, the more "Royal" the baby ! Who knows. It's only speculation on my part.
@lordmarcovan LM, I did some research just for fun. You might enjoy this small treatise from an author named Adela Orpen called "A Born King". The link opens on pg 511 but the story starts on pg 510. As for Royal babes presented on silver trays, it may be that Alfonso XIII was the only one. books
Ha! See? I was right. They made the baby king cry with all that silver tray stuff. And you were right. Seems they did it on purpose. Poor kid. Baby king... baby king... hmm...
