The Discovery Of Uncommon Treasures and True Value
Sept 30, 2015 14:59:41 GMT -5
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Post by rockymtblue2 on Sept 30, 2015 14:59:41 GMT -5
Families have a way of inflicting great pleasure and great pain. Relax, this is about the fun stuff. Last week my spouse headed back east to visit with, assess her live alone 98 year old World War II bomber pilot Dad. Together with her brothers they helped him organize his life for continued independence. He'll die in his own home; everyone is over that fight after he has deposited one after another assisted living facility only to pull out when he came to the head of the list. In tidying up he insisted that each of the kids take some things away to save the flail "when I'm dust". She came home with a few old cloth sacks and a couple of big packing envelopes filled with lots of little envelopes that he said contained some sort of collection of "stuff" his father had turned over to him late in life - said his wife had taken delivery and he'd never had the time to look at it.
Well, turns out it's a rather large collection of paper money and coins stretching back into the 1820s. We scratched the surface last night. Envelopes containing every year of the Indian Head Penny, so with one coin, some with a dozen or more. Tiny gold coins from the 1830s. Lots of different things. The 1943 "steely" penny, the first two years of the US Penny from the 1850s, Japanese occupation money from the Phillipines. Just getting started. But the thing that captivated us all as we started this exploration last night was several envelopes of paper currency issued by counties and cities in Virginia during the Civil War - 1862 and 63. Despite having been stored rather casually they are in startlingly good condition and bring home the quandary of the Confederacy: Everything had to be reinvented. Looking at a piece of paper issued by a Virginia County for 50 cents, each hand signed by two public officials, just threw us back to that earlier, dramatic time in America's history. We started talking about how we'd have to work on finding the best way to preserve these things for future generations. The value is to family and keeping the thread of family going.
Got a similar story of discovery?
Well, turns out it's a rather large collection of paper money and coins stretching back into the 1820s. We scratched the surface last night. Envelopes containing every year of the Indian Head Penny, so with one coin, some with a dozen or more. Tiny gold coins from the 1830s. Lots of different things. The 1943 "steely" penny, the first two years of the US Penny from the 1850s, Japanese occupation money from the Phillipines. Just getting started. But the thing that captivated us all as we started this exploration last night was several envelopes of paper currency issued by counties and cities in Virginia during the Civil War - 1862 and 63. Despite having been stored rather casually they are in startlingly good condition and bring home the quandary of the Confederacy: Everything had to be reinvented. Looking at a piece of paper issued by a Virginia County for 50 cents, each hand signed by two public officials, just threw us back to that earlier, dramatic time in America's history. We started talking about how we'd have to work on finding the best way to preserve these things for future generations. The value is to family and keeping the thread of family going.
Got a similar story of discovery?
