There was a time not so long ago when a quick glance at your pocket change would reveal a coin that might hold some immense value. A piece of silver or perhaps a coin that was produced with an error. When word spread about a rare and valuable coin, people would take that second look and check the date before they dropped the coin into their cup holder in their car.
It wasn’t very different decades before when I was a child in the 1960s and 1970s working on my Concord Monitor paper route and years after that in a gasoline station here in Concord. Those were my early years, years before the years took away the ability to enjoy those adolescent dreams.
During the 1960s, it was quite common to find silver coins in your everyday pocket change. The Jefferson nickels produced during the war years with a high content of silver and the Mercury Head dimes that were still in circulation. Not as common was the occasional appearance of a Buffalo nickel. I was an avid coin collector and made certain to hold onto those coins that were just a little rarer back in those days.
I recall one particular day working at the gasoline station when a teenager pulled up to the
gasoline pump and asked me to fill his tank. He also filled the tank for his friend in a separate car. A tank of gasoline back in the 1970s was about $10 to $12, so this young teenager accumulated about $20 of debt for his purchase of two tanks of gasoline.
As he reached into his car he produced some rolled coins, four rolls of coins to be exact. They were dimes and there are fifty dimes in a five-dollar roll. He handed me four rolls of dimes … Mercury Head dimes. I accepted his payment and immediately reached into my wallet and removed a $20 bill, placing it in the cash register.
I, in fact, purchased those four rolls of Mercury Head dimes. I brought them home and placed them in my childhood footlocker along with the rest of my coin collection, baseball card collection and old comic books. I snapped a padlock on that old footlocker, forgot the combination and placed it in my parents’ attic. I grew up, purchased a new home and moved all of my possessions, including that footlocker, into my new attic in my new home.
It’s been over 50 years and I never could remember that padlock combination, my childhood footlocker has remained sealed all of these years. Some day when I retire, I plan to borrow a pair of bolt cutters and open that footlocker, somewhat of a personal time capsule. That footlocker holds some value, more emotional than monetary perhaps. I will know when the time is right and will probably behold some emotions when I come face to face with the person I was over five decades ago.
As my young years progressed, I added a stamp collection and old bottle collection. I purchased a metal detector and even found an old Revolutionary War Brown Bess Socket Bayonet in the forest surrounding Concord. As I have aged, I now collect others things, heartfelt memories of family and friends. On cold winter nights near my fireplace, I recall the past and embrace the new memories I will make in the future. Some of my stories are entertaining while others perhaps not, but I make every effort to share my stories each week in my Vintage Views column and public speaking engagements.
Coin collecting is still a very popular hobby for many people. It seems that it was even more popular to the general population several decades ago. It was a time when many people in the community would engage in coin shows and hold special functions to exhibit the prized possessions in their collections. This was certainly the case when my father was a teenager back in 1948 right here in Concord. The local merchants in Concord supported National Coin Week in 1948 by placing some of these rare coins and collections in their shop windows down on Main Street. Merchants would delicately place the coins and arrange them on fine linen with extra lighting in their Main Street windows, lighting that provided just enough sparkle and glitter to catch the attention of a late-night window shopper.
National Coin Week was observed in Concord by the local members of the New Hampshire Collectors Club. The members placed coins, tokens and old paper money in the windows of the Personal Finance Company on Main Street. The Concord Kiwanis Club held a Friday night hobby show at the Baker Memorial Church where additional rare coins were exhibited. The 1792 Half Dime was one of the first coins made at the United States Mint and they were coined from silver obtained by melting down George Washington’s silverware.
There were also “Pieces of Eight” and old Roman coins as well as “shin plasters” and additional emergency money from the Civil War era. Many rare silver coins were also on display in Concord back in 1948, coins such as Flying Eagle dollars, gold dollars and Double Eagles. There was even a collection of cents starting with the date 1793 all the way to 1948. In total there were at least 46 different historic half dollars along with many error coins produced over a century ago. It was said one error coin was the result of an old coin artist adding Miss Liberty sticking her tongue out on a half cent and Abe Lincoln with a telephone operator’s speaker. Yes, our ancestors did have such a fine sense of humor, but in a very classy way, that made some coins intentionally very valuable.
There have been moments throughout my life over the past five decades when my thoughts have wandered to my attic. To the childhood footlocker that hold so many memories for me. Especially on those nights when sleep is elusive and dreams of treasure prevail. A nice thought to accompany my slumber and intrigue myself for a few more years.