If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Coin whimsy at Cracker Barrel [long]
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 |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Coin whimsy at Cracker Barrel [long]
Some fun reading, James! Don't you just love those old photos at Cracker
Barrel? My wife and I eat there often. We've sat in a certain place several times where there is a wide panoramic photo on the wall that contains the razor-sharp images of about 120 men. According to the markings on it, the photo was made at a North Carolina clam bake in 1925. Some of the fellows are standing, some are kneeling, and a few (in the foreground) are reclining back on an elbow. Though my wife has been largely impervious to this assemblage of men, I've spoken numismatics with a few of the more gregarious souls when we've sat there beside them. On one occasion, one of them even volunteered to let me browse through his pocket change. To my delight and amazement, he had among his few coins a 1912-S Liberty Nickel in XF, and a 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter in AU condition! Amistad 'pondering the value of 30 cents back in the "old days!"' |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Coin whimsy at Cracker Barrel [long]
On UK cable TV there a series titled "The Edwardians In Colour" and it's
amazing. I forget the exact details but a rich man send photographers all over the world to record normal people doing normal everyday things as he realised that great changes were coming. Something like 76,000 colour photographs were taken along with a lot of colour moving images. I find it fascinating to see moving colour images taken almost 100 years ago of people that were born up to 180 years ago. Billy "Mr. Jaggers" lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com wrote in message ... 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 |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Coin whimsy at Cracker Barrel [long]
"Amistad" wrote in message ... Some fun reading, James! Don't you just love those old photos at Cracker Barrel? My wife and I eat there often. We've sat in a certain place several times where there is a wide panoramic photo on the wall that contains the razor-sharp images of about 120 men. According to the markings on it, the photo was made at a North Carolina clam bake in 1925. Some of the fellows are standing, some are kneeling, and a few (in the foreground) are reclining back on an elbow. Though my wife has been largely impervious to this assemblage of men, I've spoken numismatics with a few of the more gregarious souls when we've sat there beside them. On one occasion, one of them even volunteered to let me browse through his pocket change. To my delight and amazement, he had among his few coins a 1912-S Liberty Nickel in XF, and a 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter in AU condition! Lower-grade duplicates from his collection, which he no doubt raided to pay for his meal that day? Say, let me know where that Cracker Barrel is, will you, so I can offer to trade my five odd 1922 "mint error" Lincoln cents that I culled out of my pocket change while they were still shiny, and that 1901-S quarter that I carry around with the letters of LIBERTY just barely visible. Please hurry, before he spends them and they get greasy fingerprints all over them from some grubby kid. James |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Coin whimsy at Cracker Barrel [long]
"Mr. Jaggers" lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com wrote in message ... 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! I thought the same thing as I was transcribing the 1859 diary/ledger written by my great great grandfather (1818-1885) who lived in in Portland, ME. I have printed it out in a report for my grandson. In an appendix I included photos of various 1859 coins he might have encountered, along with examples of some broken bank notes from the Portland area and an assortment of newfangled postage stamps he may have used. I also listed a couple dozen events and facts pertaining to the year 1859. I was as captivated by the results as I hope he will be one day. And of course we old New Englanders always called our evening meal "supper" (suppuh). Dinner (dinnuh) was in the middle of the day. Even going out at night to a real fancy restaurant with tablecloths was goin out to suppah. Heck, some of those places were called supper clubs, not dinner clubs. Bruce |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Long Beach Coin Show Report | Michael Ng | Coins | 0 | September 17th 06 06:50 AM |
Coin Show Report , long and boring... | joecoin | Coins | 7 | September 9th 04 11:46 PM |
Ok, this is a long shot, but... (Coin ID) | Pete | Coins | 0 | July 1st 04 01:11 AM |
Long Island coin shops | phil | Coins | 2 | January 11th 04 03:29 AM |
Long Beach Coin Show | Fred Truex | Coins | 2 | September 22nd 03 04:07 AM |