My "Holey Coin Vest" and "Holey Gold Hat"

Some folks had asked for pictures of my old Holey Coin ensemble, and I couldn't find them. Thought them lost for good, but then I discovered I had some saved in my old gallery at the FORVM Ancient Coins boards. So here they are.



2023 edit: the old links to stupid Photobucket all died. Scroll down the page for the some of the individual coin pictures.

Holey Coin Vest I, circa 2000. (At the NCNA show in Cary, NC.)


Holey Coin Vest II, circa 2004. (Old tabby ruins at Retreat Plantation, St. Simons Island, GA in the background.)


The Holey Gold Hat, circa 2010 or thereabouts. (In its better days, before I sold all the gold during lean times in the Recession.)


Holey Coin Hat II (no gold), January 2023 (Hangin' with Ben at the Orlando FUN show).

 

Boy those pictures bring back memories !!

 

It was indeed an attention-grabber at shows, and the only time in my life I've been a flamboyant extrovert (Internet excluded). It was pictured in Numismatic News and some of the other hobby publications.

Nope, I only adopted "wounded" coins, not ones made with holes. Center holes are harder to hang coins from, and besides, I'd have had 300 pounds of Chinese cash and other stuff if I had collected mintmade holeys. And "wounded" coins are damaged goods, so few other people wanted them. That kept them quite affordable (though the gold was still gold, of course. I paid $350 for the Eliasberg Zeno solidus and the $3 piece was $160. I paid $100 for the UNC-details Flying Eagle cent holey.)

The "holey coin garment" idea was not original to me, but I did pioneer the fishing swivel method. That not only made it easier to add or remove coins with no additional sewing hassles, but it also allowed 'em to flip around and show alternate sides, which a sewed-on coin won't do.

Guilty as charged, on both counts. But aren't so many of us?

Someone long dead, no doubt. I never "made my own" holes. They were always 100+ year old holes, with only a few exceptions: I did drill out an ugly lead solder plug from the 1856-S quarter eagle, and one or two large cents on the back had had partial holes that I "fixed" so they went all the way through. (I forgot to mention: the back side of the vest was a date set of holey large cents lacking only three dates in the 1790s and the 1804). Also, if you look in the US coin album you will see

[edit: nope, sorry, the gallery links in the first post are all bad now. Thanks for nothing, stupid Photobucket! Grrr.]

that the vest had six buttons made from old Shield nickels and Flying Eagle cents. I did drill those. They were nasty culls a detecting buddy had dug, so I put them through a rock tumbler and then drilled the center holes. (Shame on me for that, but if you had seen 'em before the treatment, they were pretty much slugs anyway.)

Indeed they do, sir. Indeed they do. For me as well.

 

Not any more. Now it's just an empty hat with some little semiprecious stone "dangles" on it, and empty fishing swivels. But I just started setting aside some cool holey love tokens and WW1 trench art pieces, to rejuvenate it. It won't see gold again, most likely (I put my collecting funds into my "Box of 20", and can't afford to stray from that much), but I've done two love token collections now and really like them. And they're affordable. The Love Token Society is the first specialized numismatic organization I've joined.

More on that later, as I get pictures made of the love tokens that will become part of "Holey Coin Hat II".

 

It just dawned on me that I did not have this coin in my album of gold from the hat.

It was the very centerpiece of the "Holey Gold Hat" collection, in fact.

Zeno (emperor of the East, A.D. 476-491). AV Solidus. Thessalonica, A.D. 476 or later.

Pedigreed to the famous Louis E. Eliasberg Collection.

RIC 941. Metcalf 223. Choice VF. 4.27 grams, 20.40 mm. Obv Helmeted, cuirassed bust three-quarters facing of Zeno, holding spear and decorated shield. Rev Victory standing l., holding long cross, two stars in field. A scarcer issue. Scratched in right obverse field and holed, otherwise Choice VF.



(This must have been a "junkbox" item for the likes of Eliasberg. Haha.)

 

Cathy - Thanks! Yes, Photobucket has gone off the rails, and become utter garbage. I once might have given them a small fee to continue the service but there is no chance of that now. I resent being extorted and simply don't trust them. They have the worst, most obnoxious kinds of ads now, and I'll be danged if I give them one red cent! It doesn't help that I paid to go "ad free" one time a year or two ago and they only took down some of the ads. But that was before they lost their blinkin' minds and went into complete "ad assault" mode!

To the devil with them, I say. I'm gradually working on "lifeboating" my pictures to other sites - here and collectivecoin. Thank goodness the latter survived its crisis!

 

Let's rescue some of the pictures from the burning Photobucket shipwreck.

First, from the Holey Gold Hat album:

Byzantine Empire: gold solidus of the Eastern emperor Zeno ca. 476-491 AD
(Ex- Louis E. Eliasberg, mentioned above in Post #12)



Turkey, gold zeri mahbub of Sultan Selim III, AH 1203, regnal year 4 (ca. 1793-1794 AD)

Colombia (Spanish Colonial): gold escudo, 1798


Canada (Newfoundland): gold 2 dollars, 1881


Great Britain: "Spade" type half-guinea, 1789


Netherlands: gold ducat, 1830


United States: Type 3 gold dollar, 1889


United States: Classic Head type quarter-eagle ($2.50), 1834 (plain 4)


United States: Liberty Head type quarter-eagle ($2.50), 1856-S


United States: gold "Indian Princess" 3 dollars, 1860
(There were tantalizing traces of an obliterated counterstamp on the obverse of this one. Sadly, I could never make it out. Looks like it began with "R R".)


United States (California): gold fractional 1/4 dollar, round Liberty head, 1870


United States (California): gold fractional 1/2 dollar, octagonal Liberty head, 187(2?)


(There were a few more gold coins on the hat- a couple of gold dollars and such - but alas, the photos of them have gone missing.)

 

Holey World coins from the front of the Holey Coin Vest

(In alphabetical order by country)

Austria: silver 10-kreuzer, 1770-A


Austria: silver florin, 1875


Austrian Netherlands: silver kronenthaler, 1797


Bermuda: copper penny, 1793


Brazil: copper 20-reis, 1820/9
(note the crazily prominent overdate)


Brazil: copper 40 reis, 1822


Brazil: silver 960 reis, 1814
(overstruck on a Spanish milled dollar, as most if not all of these were)


Medieval Bulgaria: hammered silver coin
(I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten the attribution- it was a gift from a Collectors Universe member in Bulgaria)


Byzantine Empire: bronze follis
(Again, I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten the attribution here. 6th? 7th? century, I believe? I think I see the name "Justinian" in the legends, but which one? Anyway, I picked up this magnificent monstrosity at a coin show for a measly 20 bucks and hung it on my vest on the spot. Loved its sheer size.)



Canada: bronze large cent, 1859


Canada: silver 5 cents, 1870


Canada: silver 20 cent piece, 1858
(a popular one-year type)

Canada: silver 50 cents, 1870


Canada: silver 50 cents, 1872-H


Canada (Upper Canada): copper penny bank token, 1850


Canada: copper or brass(?) halfpenny token, 1812
("slotted for use in wampum", I was told)


Canada (maybe Ireland, but I think Canada?): copper or brass(?) token, 1820
(I believe this and the piece above might be so-called "blacksmith tokens", but as you can see, I'm pretty clueless about them.)


Canada (Lower Canada/Montreal): copper "bouquet sou" token, ca. 1837


Canada (Montreal): copper penny bank token, 1842


Canada (New Brunswick): copper penny token, 1843



(To be continued in the next post...)

 

Holey World coins from the front of the Holey Coin Vest (continued)

Canada (Nova Scotia): bronze cent, 1861


Central American Republic: silver real, 1824


France: silver 5 francs, 1810-A


France: silver 5 francs, 1827-W


France: silver 5 francs, 1848-A


German States (Brunswick-Luneberg): silver 4 mariengroschen, 1783


German States (Brunswick-Luneberg): silver 24 mariengroschen, 1789

German States (Hildesheim): silver 24 mariengroschen, 1687
(A kind gift from Collectors Universe member "Udo", as I recall. Nice big coin.)

German States (Nurnberg): silver ducat klippe, 1650
(This was one of my favorite nongold holeys, for reasons you can likely imagine. The little boy with the stick horse? The square shape? Irresistible.)


Great Britain (England): silver halfgroat (2 pence), 1676


Great Britain: copper halfpenny, 1731
(Note the old "square" nail hole.)


Great Britain: copper "Cartwheel" type penny, 1797
(The first coins struck with steam power. Great chunky things, as many of you know. Especially the 2d pieces.)


Great Britain (England): silver halfgroat, 157(2?)
(That would be Elizabeth I on the obverse, but her portrait's gone, as so often happened with these)


Great Britain: silver sixpence, 1787
(I had another one of these on the Holey Coin Vest that had been gilded.)


Great Britain: silver sixpence, 1787
(This one had been gilded, though it's not very "goldy" looking in the photos.)



Great Britain (England): silver 4 pence (groat), 1688


Great Britain (England): silver crown, 1662



Great Britain: copper "Chichester halfpenny" Conder token featuring Elizabeth I, 1794


Great Britain: brass gaming counter imitating a "Spade" type guinea, "1788" (actually ca. early 19th century)
(To see a real Spade (half-) guinea of the period, scroll back up to the post above with the gold coins.)



(Continued below...)

 

I thought about it, with a few of the tiny California gold fractionals. I had one with only a thread-thin bit of metal closing the hole. But no, I never did any "work" like that, except for drilling a (crude and nasty, blackish-looking) plug out of the 1856-S USA quarter-eagle above. Otherwise, all the holes and mounts were original.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Somewhere around France when we posted these replies...

Continuing, now...

 

Holey World coins from the front of the Holey Coin Vest (continued)

Greece: silver 1/2 drachma, 1855


Guatemala (Spanish Colonial): silver 8 reales, 1800


Haiti: 25 centimes, L'An 1(-?)
(An early Haitian silver piece from the first decade or so of the 1800s, dated by their revolutionary calendar. The last digit of the date is not clear.)


Hungary: silver 15 kreuzer, 1744-KB


India (British): silver 2 annas, 1882


India (British/East India Company): silver 1/4 rupee, 1840


Ireland: copper halfpenny of William & Mary, 1693


Italy: silver 5 lire, 1871


Italy (Napoleonic): silver 10 soldi, 1812


Jersey: copper 1/13 shilling, 1841
("One-thirteenth of a shilling" has to be one of the more bizarre denominations out there. Can't believe it took the Brits until 1971 to implement a decimal currency.)


Mexico (Spanish Colonial): silver half-real, 1753-Mo
Pillar of Hercules type. Mexico City mint.


Mexico: silver 8 reales, 1844-Zs
Zacatecas mint.


Netherlands (Utrecht): copper duit, 1786


Netherlands (Zeeland): silver 6 stuivers, 1793


Poland: silver ort (1/4 thaler), 1621


Portugal: silver 200 reis, 1748
(A fairly basic design, but handsome coins, in my opinion.)


Puerto Rico (Spanish rule): silver 20 centavos, 1895-PG-V
(All Puerto Rican coins are relatively scarce. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they finally got around to listing these in the "Red Book" of United States coins now, since Puerto Rico is a US Territory? Hawaiian and Philippine coins have been listed for some time.)


Russia: silver rouble, 1842-CлБ


(Here I lament the loss of the picture of my holey 1791 Sierra Leone dollar, if not the coin itself. As I recall, it was maybe a G-VG-details piece- holed, of course. But quite a rare coin!)

Switzerland: copper-nickel 5 rappen, 1894-B
This was the very first "holey" coin I added to the Holey Coin Vest collection.



Well, that about wraps up all of the (still-existent) photos of the World coins on the front of the Holey Coin Vest. That's just one side of the front of the vest! The other half of the front side was US coins, which I'll post later...

Edit: nope, sorry, looks like I never got around to doing that, and all those pics were forever lost when stinkin’ Photobucket struck an iceberg and sank.