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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Paddy54, post: 2547876, member: 19250&quot;]Stopping in to the LCS today was interesting....as I had some time to play but ....forgot I only had a 10 spot on me.</p><p>Now I must admit I did see a few items of interest all of course out of my price range of a ten dollar bill.</p><p>I still went through the albums and didn&#039;t see anything that wowed me. Until....I asked to see the Exonumia album the Maryland one......</p><p>So I was turning the pages and ran across this piece of Maryland History.</p><p>What I found was pretty cool and well within my $10 budget in fact only a couple of bucks.</p><p>Then I found an Washington Post write up on the items I found.....even cooler!</p><p>The Junior Republic&nbsp; Also known as Annapolis Junction was an area in Maryland where Anne Arundel , Prince Georges,and Howard counties came together.</p><p>There&#039;s now an abandoned residential reform school&nbsp; called Cedar Knoll.{ Currently owned by D.C. Dept. of Human Services}</p><p>The write up goes on to say&nbsp; most people knew nothing of the history of the now abandoned property.</p><p>You see in June of 1899 a group of philanthropic citizens of Baltimore and Washington secured a charter from the state of Maryland as well as land at Annapolis Junction to establish what they called &quot;The National Junior Republic&quot; a private reform school for delinquent and potentially delinquent boys and girls ages 14 to 21.</p><p>The good citizens modeled their institution on&nbsp; the William R. George&#039;s&nbsp; George Junior Republic in Freeville N.Y.</p><p>They believed it would be an answer to the problem of delinquent children in the slums of Baltimore and Washington.</p><p>Under the National Republic system boys and girls at Annapolis Junction lived in boarding houses. They were paid for their lodging and food with specially issued tin coins. And like their counter parts in Freeville N.Y.&nbsp; worked at jobs that ranged from ditch digging, road building, skilled trades,farming, carpentry,masonry,and printing. The girls were cooks ,housekeepers,and laundresses.</p><p>A complement to this economic system of &quot;Nothing Without Labor&quot; and free enterprise was a political system of self rule and democracy in which the boys and girls elected a president and a legislature and administered a court and a correctional system.</p><p>However in 1917 the National Junior Republic closed its doors.</p><p>This happen for several reasons a booming job market of WWl,and an increase of attendance in senior High schools.</p><p>the site today is abandon 144 acres.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a side note the tin coin I purchased today has the Capital on one side with the words &quot;Liberty Exlats&nbsp; Labor&quot;</p><p>the other side is the date 1899 That looks to have been repunched.... and the words &quot;National Junior Republic&quot; and a large 5 in the center of the coin. This reminds me of the 5 on a shield nickel.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was pretty stoked to have found this piece of history....and just wanted to share the story.&nbsp; [ATTACH=full]547055[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]547058[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]547059[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I hope you enjoy reading about this specimen as I have finding it and telling its story. Paddy</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>A post scrip this piece of scrip was issued the first year, as it opened in 1899-1917. Pretty neat 117 year old tin nickel.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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