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The E-Sylum:  Volume 4, Number 43, October 21, 2001, Article 5

THIS (PAST) WEEK IN NUMISMATIC HISTORY    

  What would the U.S. cent and five dollar bill look like without   
  Lincoln's beard?    

  On October 15, 1860, 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield,   
  NY wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln,   
  suggesting he could improve his appearance by growing a   
  beard.  The text of their exchange is shown here:   
  http://speakernews.house.gov/library/texts/lincoln/bedell.asp    

  According to the web site of the State Bank of Delphos in   
  Delphos, Kansas,   " ... she didn't know she was making   
  history.  Lincoln replied at once, started growing a beard,   
  and met his "little correspondent" four months later when his   
  inaugural train stopped in Westfield.  Eight years later Grace   
  married Civil War veteran George N. Billings.  They moved   
  to Kansas (1870),  ten years before the founding of the State   
  Bank of Delphos.  Grace Bedell Billings kept Lincoln's letter   
  in the bank, where she often did bookkeeping for her   
  husband and later served as a director.  She found it hard to   
  believe that her letter would be part of one of the more   
  fascinating human-interest stories in U.S. history.   
  http://www.statebankofdelphos.com/About_Us/aboutusframe.htm    

  Finally, these pages show photos of Grace and pre- and   
  post- beard photos of Lincoln, along with contemporary   
  newspaper accounts of their meeting.    

  http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton1/Lincoln50.html   
  http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/bedell.htm   
  http://www.geocities.com/Clay_Hogg/DelphosKS1.html    

  A search through the Haxby volumes and Steven Whitfield's   
  "Kansas Obsolete Notes and Scrip (SPMC, 1980) did not   
  locate notes issues by the State Bank of Delphos, so maybe   
  the numismatic connection stops with Lincoln's image.    

  "Today, the original of Grace's letter to Lincoln is in the   
  Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library.   
  Lincoln's letter to Grace is owned by a private collector   
  who wishes to remain anonymous."   
  http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/burton/   

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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