"The Hunt For Mr. Loveless", by BRandM

Hello, everyone!

About this time last year, I posted a thread here on CoinTalk asking about a counterstamped coin I had found. Bruce, aka @BRandM, was one of the many who responded and who put a lot of effort into tracking the counterstamp down.



A few weeks ago, I was reminded of Mr. Loveless and asked Bruce if he'd be interested in telling us his story. He graciously agreed, and wrote a brilliant article on The Hunt For Mr. Loveless that just goes to show the power of CoinTalk and one dedicated sleuth!


I have to add that last week I received a package out of the blue from Bruce with a thoughtful gift inside -- B.R. & M. custom counterstamped coins!



They're too cool not to share, and there's more pics if you're interested.


I'd like to thank Bruce once again for writing a great article -- and for the lovely gift!

 

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Very nice of him!

 

It was a nice write up and a lot of research. Enjoyed reading it.

 

Thanks for sharing this with us, Amanda. That was very generous of Bruce.

Chris

 

It's always awesome to uncover the history of a coin; thank you for sharing.

 

I didn't do a darn thing ... I may have started the ball rolling by posting the coin, but all the whole story is thanks to @BRandM

 

Well then thanks to BrandM for researching it and you for posting it .
WTG to both of you .

 

Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to share another story of an item's history uncovered. This came to me when a coworker heard I'm a coin enthusiast (not many outside of this forum know what a numismatist is) and asked me if I knew anything about it. I immediately identified it as a Love Token Bracelet and spent the next month or two researching it on my down time. Happy reading: http://www.winsociety.org/newsletter/vol-7/A-Tale-of-Love-Tokens.html

 

Haa-ha. Exonumia has got SOUL.

Somehow I managed to miss that thread last year, so thank you Amanda for bringing it back.

And thanks to Bruce for his work and article. Hey, that was fun seeing how the hardcore folks do things. You da man Bruce!

 

It was my pleasure Amanda, and thanks to everyone for their kind comments.

Bruce

 

Great story and very unusual to see the history of a love token bracelet or even a single token. Not sure I ever have before. Thanks so much for a great article.

Bruce

 

Very interesting! One of my favorite parts of numismatics is pondering who held this coin before me, and in the case of counterstamps, a piece of that coins history can be found. After a lot of research Cool stuff!

 

Great story and research!! Love reading it but don't myself have the patience to sift through the records congrats!

 

I wish we still had "Thread of the Week" this one would get my vote .
Two great articles , what more could one want .

 

Bruce is Da Man!

 

That's pretty much exactly how I feel. I love the idea of it, I love reading the story at the end, but I just don't think I have the patience to research like Bruce does!

 

Ah, I remember that thread. Thanks for posting the rest of the story.

 

I helped!

In all seriousness though, this is pretty awesome. I know that for a lot of people (especially retirees), this (genealogy) is their passion and what they spend all of their free time on.

It makes sense as you are in a way uncovering history, and in a way is very similar to coin collecting. You get to do something enjoyable, and occasionally you have those "Aha!!!" moments.

 

I was just wondering , why someone would make a badge out of a 50 cent piece as that was a lot of money in those days . Wouldn't it be more prudent to use a large cent or piece of brass ? Since I'd think large cents did circulate in Michigan and anyone would be able to pick up a small piece of brass from the RRs machine shop .

 

By the time the coin was stamped Large Cents were no longer in circulation and likely didn't circulate much that far west anyway. The half dollar would have been the perfect size for what he wanted to stamp on it. Anything smaller wouldn't accommodate that much writing. Plus the hole would probably interfere with the captions.

Bruce