This past week I had to go to Florida for a relatives funeral and after the funeral since my wife works for Gaylord we went to Gaylord Palms in Orlando to end the trip on a happier note. While we were there my youngest daughter got the opportunity to hold a gold bar from the Atocha After the salesman explained the history of the wreck to her her eyes lit up knowing that she was holding a piece of history. Of course while at the counter the salesman said "make an offer" on the bar and I had to inform him that I could not come close to his ask. Now she is looking over every penny, nickel and dime in her piggy bank and reading all the books and articles she can find about coins. Look sliek she is hooked.
Great story. That's the kind we all like to hear. Sorry to hear of your loss,though. You have my deepest sympathy.
Noobgw - If you really want to stimulate her interest - get your daughter a columnario ( Pillar dollar or one of the various denominations ). In lesser grades the coins are not terribly expensive and rather easy to find. Just like that gold bar - actually holding one of the coins that were shipped on those Spanish galleons is rather exciting
Why these gold bars were long and narrow... I've been to Mel Fisher's museum in Key West as well as the store at the Gaylord Resort and asked why are many of the recovered gold bars long and narrow? Apparently, the Spanish goverment back then taxed anything of value that was brought back from the New World. Obviously, gold was one of those items, so many of the Spanish sailors would smuggle in these gold bars to avoid paying taxes. One of the ways to smuggle in gold was to melt it in long narrow strips so that these sailors could hide them in the leg of their boot as they walked off the ship. Sure enough the government caught on and instructed their tax collectors to "watch the leg of their boot" for smugglers...their boot leg, and hence the term bootlegger was born as a term for smuggling! I call these I.B.U.'s...interesting but unimportant.
Not quite. More something like this - obverse reverse The coin you have used Jody was supposed to have been struck in Denmark. It was a trade coin issued by Denmark in an attempt to capitalize on the success of the Spanish coin. It was only struck from 1771 to 1774 and is considered rather rare. I'd love to have one Since yours has a date of 1777 - and I'm not 100% sure - I think it is either a modern restrike or a counterfeit. Do you know ?
Sorry GDJMSP, I can't offer any info on the coin in my link. It came from a foreign language website. I assumed that it was a Pillar Dollar. I like your example much better.
You are correct Ed - they did tax everything. It was known as the "Royal fifth". But this this tax was collected right at the colonial mints as the bullion was refined and the coins were struck. The amounts were staggering. In one 10 yr period - 1600- 1610 there were 1,900 ships that made the trip from the New World to Spain.
Denmark Norway coin Hi. It's not a restirke or counterfeit. It's the Norwegian version of the coin. This coin is minted on Kongsberg, and not in Denmark. Many Danish and Norwegian coins look much alike, but the Norwegian coins differs by two hammers crossing each other. A coin like the one pictured were sold from Larry Goldberg's collection in California for 23.000 $ so I would really like to have this coin Regards Oyvind
My wife and I had dinner out with some friends, including their five-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter, on Saturday. When I left the tip in kennedy half-dollars, their eyes widened and they walked over to my side of the table to examine them. They were so impressed that I gave them each a half-dollar. Later, they all came over to our house, and they eight-year-old seemed very interested in my coin albums. I have nothing very rare or impressive, but she really liked my Indian-head cents and the wide variety of cheapie world coins. I gave her another coin--a two-shilling piece from the UK. And I gave the five-year-old a Danish coin. (I think I've got him half-conviced, from the stories I tell him, that I used to be a pirate and that there is some sort of treasure buried someplace in my backyard.)
I have a daughter on 18 months, and I work with coins as a purchaser for a large company in Norway. And she's REALLY in love with coins. Last christmas she got a lot of dolls and bears and other baby stuff, but all night she sat playing with a little box of coins that actually was a present to me If she's in a bad mood, crying or something, I just bring out the green box with coins and then she's occupied the next 1-2 hours. One of her first words was "mynt" which is the Norwegian word for "coin" So this is a way to keep up the interest. Let them start REALLY early. PS: Even thou she's very little, she knows anough not to put the coins in her mouth.
That is so great that she caught the Bug, I still wonder who might have carried the old coins I hold, Especally those that may have been carried through the civil war etc. I got started with the OLD Whitman folders when the lincoln cent was 1 folder. After I got really into it my mother dug through her jewelry box and handed me a tiny coin. We lived so far out in the woods that it took me a couple months to get it into town where a coin dealer offered me $8.00 for it. I would have been RICH if I had accepted it!! But I kept my 1911-D 2 1/2 $ gold coin!!
Thats great Noo. I started to collect the state quarters to share the experience with my six and four year old as well as to introduce/reinforce aspects of our nations history and purpose but wouldn't you know it, my six year old looks thru my World Catalogs on Gold coins with me and says he wants all of them especially the big ones. I think he may be GD's son sometimes. Anyway it is a good thing that I hide my stash of gold coins for I found out last week that he donated the buffalo nickels and the Franklin halfs I gave him to the school 's Ronald McDonald House Make a Wish coin box which would make him my son.
Danish coin. Jody,this is actually a Danish coin.It looks like the Spanish-American Pillar Dollar,but this was struck as a trade coin for circulation in Greenland. Aidan.
Oyvind - Can you tell me where the crossed hammers you mention can be found on the coin ? I must need new glasses
