April 21-April 27 is National Coin Week. I have several books on coin collecting and identification. “Modern World Coins, 1850-1950” by R.S. Yeoman, 1974, and “Coins of the World, 1750 to 1850” by W.C. Craig, 1971. They have helped me with some figuring out of coins.
I have collected coins from friends, and from various travels. I store many of them in my ‘pot of gold’ sitting on a shelf in the library. It was more fun collecting European contries before the Euros. Coins were so different. Each of my grandkids went through a stage where they had to pour all of the coins out of the pot, sort them in various ways, and then put them back in.
I have one penny in an envelope that says “this penny has traveled somewhere you or I wouldn’t want to.” The envelope was in my father’s baby book. When my wife and I were caregiving my grandmother (at age 96), I brought the penny out and asked her about it. She grabbed the envelope and smiled, while staring a long time at it. She then said “Scotty (my dad) had swallowed that penny”, and she spent the next day and a half going through each and every diaper until she found the penny. She cleaned it up, and put it in an envelope. I bet she stared at that penny for twenty minutes.
I have a great friend in Japan, that has visited several times. The first time she and her husband came, they gave me a selection of some old Japanese coins. It was a little tough researching the years on some of them, Japanese and all-but that is worth the challenge.
Her next visit and gift was a collection of modern coins, from the one yen to the 100 yen coins. They were in an official collecting book like American coin books-all of the years of pennies, nickles, dimes, etc. I have been able to add several missing ones from my japanese coins in the pot. I had brought home a large handful of coins when I visited Japan. I certainly have some great friends, and they have given some wonderful, thoughtful presents.
All of these coins have made me rich, not monetarily speaking, (my wife still gets upset at the dollar amount of foreign coins sitting in that pot) but the memories of where I was when I got those coins, and how drawn every grandchild has been to them when they visited the library, are worth more than gold. Connections with Collections is what I strive for in my Library. That, and a few puns.
I may have a coiny joke…but does it make cents? How does a cow pay for things? With Moo-la…until the farmer milks them dry.
Thanks for reading.
Librarytomes 