"Follow The Leader" coin thread BY THEME (for ALL types of coins, tokens, and medals)

Speaking of stuff found in "junk" lots: there were two of these in a big bag of tokens I bought.

 

This one (from the same exonuma bulk bag as those USS Olympia medals) is pretty interesting. It's a 1934 Lincoln cent, but the reverse seems to have been encased in some kind of copper shell which commemorates the fire aboard the SS Morro Castle in 1934, the same year as on the coin. Why someone would make a souvenir to commemorate a disaster which killed 137 people is anyone's guess. I must admit it's pretty interesting 80+ years after the fact, though.



What made this one even more interesting is that when I sold it on eBay, the winner turned out to be Deborah Whitcraft, the president of the New Jersey Maritime Museum, where most of the artifacts of the Morro Castle disaster are now housed. She is also a coauthor of a book on the subject. After I found out this piece was destined for a museum, I gave her a small rebate, and after some friendly correspondence, she sent me a signed copy of the book, which was very nice.

 

I like that! Come to think of it, i have a piece of ship-themed currency, too. (Maybe i will do a December giveaway after all...)

Hmmm... since I'm also just about out of ships, let's change the theme to ill-fated or doomed ships, people, or things.

You may still post ship-themed items, if the ship met a bad end. But also monarchs whose reigns didn't end well, or anything else disaster or doom-related.

(Yeah - another dark theme, I know. Sorry. Can't help it.)

 

Here, I'll "cheat" a bit, too. This one doesn't count because it isn't my coin (yet, though I do have it watchlisted). But it is a good transition between the "ships" and "doomed" themes (as if the Morro Castle penny wasn't already).

Here is a bronze coin of the British usurper Allectus, who met a bad end, as did most usurpers (and emperors, for that matter) in that period of Roman history.

Continue with doomed or ill-fated people or things.

(I was just admiring this coin in my window-shopping and wanted to post a picture of it, even though I haven't bought it yet and may never do so. But ... maybe.)