What is your favorite coin story? It can be about the coin itself or how you obtained it.
One of my earliest childhood memories was a trip to St. Augustine, Florida, where my parents took me to the “fort made out of seashells” from the early Spanish explorers. My father bought me a replica 8 reals pillar of Hercules coin. Some 60 years later, I have this coin and a genuine specimen side-byside. The facsimile coin from all those years ago remains my favorite coin in my collection.
Fred S.
Back when I was in high school in 2002, I went to buy a Coke from the Coke machine. The kid in front of me put his quarters in the machine, but one of the quarters kept coming back out. After the third time, he turned around to me and asked if I had a quarter. I said sure and handed him a quarter and he gave me the quarter that kept getting rejected by the machine. As soon as he handed it to me he said, “That quarter looks fake.” The “fake” quarter was a 1964 silver quarter in BU condition. It looked like it could have come straight out of a mint set. After the kid had bought his Coke, I looked at the silver quarter and back at him. I started to tell him what he gave me he until he said to me “I didn’t rip you off, it’s a quarter.” So I decided to just say nothing and keep it instead.
Name and address withheld
Back in the mid-1950s in my town there were a lot of little neighborhood stores that were part of the owner’s house. A lady just down the block had one. Our paper boy was a couple years older than me and had gotten me started in coin collecting. I was 9 or 10 and was mostly into “pennies” and nickels. The store lady knew that I was collecting and would let me go through her change box periodically. She used to tell me that she saved Indian Head “pennies” when they began to disappear. One day she called me down to the store and told me she had 600 and was giving them to her three daughters, but she wanted me to be able to see them. I couldn’t believe my eyes because I had never been lucky enough to find one. About a week later she called me down again. When she was dividing the bag with her daughters, she discovered that there were 601 of them. She wanted me to have the extra one. I don’t think I could have been more excited if she was giving me giving me a $100 bill. Thank you, Mrs. Schultz.
Rich Bevington Sandusky, Ohio About 20 years ago my dad gave me all of his coins. As he was not really a true numismatist; I still wonder today how he accumulated some of the coins that he gave me. The most interesting thing was the first page of the old style Whitman board album for Mercury dimes. The rest of the album was not there. This was one of those albums where you could touch the front of the coins, and the reverse of the coins were not visible unless the coin was removed. Anyway, of the 10 Mercury dimes on the page, in the 1916-P port was a 1916-D dime in G-4 condition! It still amazes me to this day.
Dave Burdis Charleroi, Pa. This could be titled “assumptions are not always correct.”
Several years ago an attorney called me and asked if I could meet and discuss a collection of coins held in an estate. I did, learned that the coins were scattered among office file drawers and a safe deposit box. I went with the widow to the office and found several file drawers with proof sets, mint sets and rolls of wheat cents ... not much of value. I then asked her if she knew about the other coins in a safe deposit box, and she replied, “My husband always told me the Carson City coins were valuable.” With that information and from what I had encountered in the office file drawer, I concluded that there were likely GSA dollars. Once the executor had opened the safe deposit box and assembled the coins in his conference room, I began preparing the inventory. And it proved to be extensive: a set of Buffalo nickels, a set of $ 2.50 Indians, the usual Roosevelt dime and Franklin sets, a double row box of commercial Unc. $ 20 Saints, but nowhere did I see the tell- tale black GSA boxes. The last things on the table were three flat boxes easily identified as Capital plastic holders. When opened, I discovered a complete set of Carson City $ 5 and $ 10 coins, while the $ 20s were complete except for the 1870- CC. Yes, the Carson City coins were valuable.
Gary Burhop Address withheld Back in 1967 I worked in a machine shop in Chicago. One coffee break morning, coworkers Hank, Chester and me walked over to the coffee vending machine and Chester dropped in a quarter for a 10- cent cup of coffee and got back a dime and a nickel. As we were walking back to our work area, Hank and I noticed Chester stopped in his tracks. When Hank and I walked back to see why he stopped, he was frozen in place by the 1916- D Mercury dime he just got in change. It looked F or XF, and no matter what coins and proof sets Hank offered in trade for the coin Chester said he was keeping it.
Joe G. Carlsbad, Calif. I was young and was taking an interest in coin collecting. I didn’t have much of a budget, so I shopped hard for bargains. I stopped by a pawn shop, and they had rolls of wheat cent coins for a dollar a roll. This was around 1993. I bought about 10 rolls and went home and searched through them. I found a 1914-D Lincoln cent! It is in decent condition and was a nice prize to add to my new collection at a cost of 2 cents! Still remember this great bargain.
Ken Germantown, Ohio
My dad was in North Africa and Italy with a B-24 Bomb Group during WWII. He found and sent a few things home to his dad in Alabama. Growing up, my dad and granddad would sometimes pull out the “ole stuff” and tell some interesting story behind it. This coin is and always has been one of my favorites. Memories alone make this coin priceless to me.
The history behind the story is fascinating, but very convoluted. It contains all the “usual players,” England, France, Germany, Spain, all vying for control of this country. Morocco was an important country for many reasons, only one of which was access to ports on the Atlantic Ocean.
From military administration from 1907- 1912, to the “Treaty of Fez,” March 30, 1912, France went from military occupation to colonial regime in the Sherifian Empire, or Protectorate, from 1912 to April 7, 1956, when Morocco gained independence. During this time Morocco was technically an independent nation. Its Sultan reigned but did not rule. That was the role of the French military resident general.
The French minted coinage for the Protectorate from 1921 until 1956, francs and centimes, which was replaced in 1960 with the dirham. The first were coined under the Sultanate of Yusuf, from 1921 to 1927.
In 1921 coins were minted in Paris and had no date or privy mark, this was true of most of the coins minted during Sultan Yusuf’s reign. In 1924, coins were minted at Poissy with the thunderbolt privy mark, found under the denomination on reverse.
This was one of my first one-dimensional coins to really be exposed to. I didn’t fully realize until I researched this, that one-dimensional coins are such that the devices are at exactly the same height off the fields, which leaves no high points for wear to occur first. That makes grading tough. Almost all Moroccan coins have a star of some type on it. Surprising that the Star of David is on some, but Morocco is home to a very large Jewish population, so it is represented on a coin from a traditionally Muslin country. On other coins there is an eight-pointed star, which is common in Muslim art.
This type is on the denomination side of the 50 centimes and 1- franc coin. The five-pointed star is a symbol of both Islam and the Ottoman Empire. Surprisingly, the Ottoman empire never fully conquered Morocco, but parts of eastern Morocco were under Ottoman control.
Finally, the key to the series is the 25 centimes with both thunderbolt and torch privy marks, minted in Poissy France in 1924. That particular coin is harder to find.
These coins were minted as circulation coinage under the following rulers, Sultan Yusef, 1907-1927; Sultan Mohammed V, 1927- 1953; Sultan Mohammed VI, 1953-1955; and Sultan Mohammed V, 1955-1956.
Even today, over 55 years later, I pull this coin out and enjoy the memories of my dad and granddad. Rest assured that it will go to my son when I am gone.
William Moses Address withheld