My wife and I stopped at a Cracker Barrel for supper (yup, us old-timers
call it that) this evening. Hanging on the wall adjacent to our table was a
large oval mirror, flanked by oval frames containing photographs of what
must have been a husband and wife. We started speculating as to who they
might have been. Our conclusions: The photos were taken in the 1880s; they
were not elderly, but already beyond the average life expectancy of the day;
and they were city dwellers (country folks were much less likely to have
been able to afford the luxury of large, framed photographs under convex
glass). For all I know, they could have been David and Sadie Metzler, two
ancestors of mine. My wife decided that they were of the merchant class,
maybe dealers in fine fabric, as they were well-dressed themselves.

Many numismatists, upon taking coins in hand, try to imagine who might have
used them, and for what purchases. In this case, I did just the opposite.
I started thinking about what kinds of coins passed through David's hands in
the course of business. If the couple were from the East, they would likely
have seen some XF-AU Indian cents dated in the 1870s, along with some of the
older dates in lower grades. I wonder if David looked through them, having
heard the rumor about the scarcity of 1877, and started filling a jar under
the counter with the ones he found. If they hailed from farther west, there
might have still been a Civil War token or two come through the till,
interlopers from a bygone era. Certainly there would have been many shield
nickels in the mix of their daily coins, still bright and shiny from recent
mintage. And liberty nickels! Did David have to keep an eye out for
someone trying to foist a gilt 1883 no-cents nickel as a $5 gold? Did he
ever get one of the million and a half 1885s, in high grade, which has
turned out to be a very rare item these days?

And how about the silver? Seated Liberty minors would have made up the bulk
of his precious metal coins. The occasional capped bust pieces might have
been squirreled away in the same jar that housed the 77 Indians. I imagined
that David and his wife might have lived in Carson City and handled some of
the rare CC mintmarked dimes, quarters, and halves that sell for four and
five figures today. It might have been a daily occurrence for a customer to
come in and send a silver dollar clanking across the counter - not just any
silver dollar, but an 1879-CC that had barely circulated when it came into
their shop. Or, better yet, an 1884-S that had not really circulated at
all, brought in the pocket of his leather coat by a traveler from San
Francisco who noted that its surfaces were especially mirrorlike and yet
free of marks, almost good enough to use as a very portable shaving mirror,
what we might call MS-63 nowadays. Yikes, look that one up in your Redbook!

Those owners of the mercantile would have certainly seen gold coins,
including the tiny one-dollar pieces, so small and lightweight that they
might slip through a crack in the wood floor. A few three-dollar gold coins
would likely have floated in and out of their lives, and at face value!

At this point the server came back to the table and asked if we wanted
anything else. No, I put down a tip (sorry, no rare coins), we got up, paid
our tab, and headed home after a fine visit to the world of the Metzlers.

James