TOM KAYS' NUMISMATIC DIARY MARCH 20, 2022

Wayne Homren sent his regrets, but he could not make the March 2022 Nummis Nova dinner. We crew carried on captain-less, nonetheless. Seeing Saint Patrick's Day looming on the horizon, we chose not the Ides of March but Erin's green as an impromptu theme for festivities in mid-March. See us already listing a wee bit to port at the Captain's Table on the Good Ship Shamrock. Around the galley deck are Jon Radel, Dave Schenkman, Mike Packard, Julian Leidman, Steve Bishop, Tom and Wayne H(erndon).

 

To tell the truth we actually supped on dry land at Clyde's at Mark Center, a favorite dinner location of Nummis Nova regulars, especially those who long ago got a package deal on Clyde's sterling silver tokens at half price, that may still be redeemed in full price fine dining.

 
Pictured above: Dave passing bad pennies to Mike.

Many curious numismatic ‘bits and bobs' passed round our table including a Becker copy of a colonial copper (Hint: always look at the edge), an impressively large, John London Post Trader, In Goods 50 Cents brass token from Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory, with blank reverse, a nice 1787 Nova Eborac (New York) copper slabbed as PCGS XF40, a Rose Dress Shops advertising mirror (Mirror good for $1.00 on any purchase of $6.99 or more at 6402 So. Halsted Street) with embedded 1934 Lincoln cent, a silvered-bronze Billion Marks from Westphalia, Germany in 1923, and a sterling silver bar used as a ‘Lady's Ticket' at Daly's 5th Ave. Theatre, commemorating 200 performances of Pique, as of Friday June 23, 1876, Retain this Check made by Gorham & Co. Silversmith at Union Square.

Keeping with the theme of green I brought part of a small collection of Greenies or dug copper coins, found locally by one individual metal detectorist (not me) over the years.

 
A bouquet of ‘Greenies' as they were unearthed

I do not show some of the typical dogged farm field coppers in the collection that were bathed in fertilizer and pushed around by the plough for a century or two, leaving little detail to identify them by.

Those pictured are the crème de la crème having better detail (less wear) at time of loss. They span about 130 years of manufacture. Included are a 1794 Laird from the Austrian-Netherlands, English Georgian Half Pennies of George I, II, and III, a Hibernian copper of George III (Top row, Center), several 1773 Virginia Half Pennies including one that was holed through the middle with the remains of an iron nail still embedded (an anti-Tory sentiment?), a bent 1787 New Jersey copper, two Connecticut coppers (Head Left and Right varieties), and the remainder being US Half Cents and Large Cents (multiple varieties with dates spanning 60 years).

To the right of the 1811 Half Cent and by using a bit of ‘phrenology' (looking at the bumps on Lady Liberty's head/hair in relation to her Liberty legend), Mike Packard and I believe the coin in the third row, third from the right, is a 1793 Wreath Cent with Lettered Edge, a possible Sheldon 11-C Variety. Little pots o'gold, these coins found with metal detectors, may not gleam like gold, but come tarnished green, ratty, and worn, with naught but history, a bit of mystery, and the luck of the Irish to be lost and yet rise again from the soil akin to shamrocks. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web