COINS FROM THE WOODWORK AT 1901 EXPOSITION

The Western news (Stevensville, Montana). January 29, 1902

There are more ragged old bank bills, government notes and ancient silver coin that have been put into circulation in Buffalo during the Pan-American exposition than have been seen for a quarter of a century, says the New York Times. A searcher after the cause found many cashiers of shows and other places who could give explanations. One money taker of a midway performance said: “It’s simple enough. Farmers from the interior of New York State, Pennsylvania and Ohio have been attracted to the exposition because they could see a big show cheap. They take their hoard of old silver coins and small bills, which have been out of circulation and in their stockings and teapots for years, and turn them loose here. It is hard on the city folks, but the farmers would be insulted if you refused their old coins.”

A cashier of a German resort said: “There are thousands of Germans who came this country and worked hard for years saving their small change. They come here and spend old dimes and quarters saved on the farms as if they were five-dollar bills.”

Another shrewd observer said: “You see, there are thousands of people who come to the exposition who do not fully know the value of coins. Many unscrupulous people are making a business to collect all the battered coin which would be refused in New York and send it here to be [palmed] off on the “hayseeds” and foreigners. Plugged coins which would be refused in New York and which would have to be sold for a large discount find their way here and pass at full face value. Then, again, there are many Canadian people who have battered United States currency which they want to get rid of. It seems as if all the old garrets of this state had been racked to find old bills and coin to be put in circulation during the exposition.” The custom is established at the exposition not to refuse battered coin because it is so easy to pass it through the cash drawer to the next unsuspecting visitor.

Here, we have indication that coins that had long ago been hoarded by farmers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York, were dug out and spent at the Pan American Exposition held at Buffalo, New York, May to November, 1901. It would have been most interesting to see exactly what the concession- aires were taking in. Were they high grade pre-Civil War Liberty Seated coins that had been hoarded 40 years before, or coins from the 1875-1878 retirement of the fractional currency, or possibly coins from the earlier Federal period? Clearly the concessionaires knew to be on the lookout for coins that later could be sold to collectors.

Coins that were holed, engraved or otherwise mutilated were only received by the U. S. Government based on the value of their actual silver weight, not their face value. Post Offices flat refused to accept these coins and most merchants followed suit. Apparently, some enterprising New Yorkers saw an opportunity to gather up these “old maids” on the cheap from the brokers about town and sell them in bulk to the concessionaires at the Exposition. The concessionaires could pass them on in change to the unsuspecting public and the suppliers would make a tidy profit on the spread. Apparently, “hayseeds” were in abundance back in 1901.

For more information on the Liberty Seated Collectors Club, see:
http://www.lsccweb.org/

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web