Imagine If This 1865 Penny Could Talk

Wetaskiwin Times ^ | 6/23/09 | Jerold LeBlanc

[Moonman62]

Headlines for the day include several U.S. Civil War Confederate veterans forming the Ku Klux Klan,

One of them being a young Robert Byrd from West Virginia.

[exit82]

Just found the other day a 1916 penny in a roll of pennies, in extremely fine condition.

93 years old.

Last year, found a 1910 penny in change.

Makes you wonder where its traveled and who has held it throgh the years.

[devistate one four]

I found a penny in Crandon, Wi. dated 1860 and it’s in good shape!

[devistate one four]

I found a penny in Crandon, Wi. dated 1860 and it’s in good shape!

[Jim from C-Town]

No Robert Byrd was a spry age 51 in 1865

[SandWMan]

And just imagine what that penny could actually buy in 1865...

[Oatka]

I must admit I am equally impressed when a 142 year old penny survives in circulation – although that is highly unlikely.

A detective on burglary detail once told me that when you find a coin like that, especially in decent condition, it is likely some wasteoid stole a coin collection and spent them as common change.

[SLB]

I found a 1997 penny the other day. Does that count for anything?

[Osage Orange]

When I was a kid...I collected pennies..in those blue folding flat books.

I recently moved and "found" the books again....Among many others...I have a 1915 D in pretty good shape.

Fun to look at...and wonder where it traveled.

FRegards,

[reynols]

I must admit I am equally impressed when a 142 year old penny survives in circulation – although that is highly unlikely.

Most likely it was either a child raiding their parents coin collection, or a coin collector having extras and deciding to spend it on purpose in order to "seed" the field for future coin collectors.

[ClearCase_guy]

Flipside --

I find it depressing to look at my change and see a old, battered penny: "Boy!" I say. "This must be really old! Let's check the date!"

And then I see it's the year I was married. Sigh.

[Old Professer]

From measuringworth:

Current data is only available till 2008. In 2008, $0.01 from 1865 is worth:

$0.14 using the Consumer Price Index
$0.12 using the GDP deflator
$1.18 using the unskilled wage
$1.67 using the nominal GDP per capita
$14.44 using the relative share of GDP

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

A friend of mine used to work as a toll taker on a bridge. He came across a lot of interesting coins that way. He’d just swap the dime or whatever he got with a newer coin from his pocket.

[a fool in paradise]

Headlines for the day include several U.S. Civil War Confederate veterans forming the Ku Klux Klan,

Belonging to the DEMOCRAT party. Today Michael Moore would refer to such post-war terrorists as "insurgents" who were fighting the Northern "imperialists" in their midst during Reconstruction.

[a fool in paradise]

Don’t forget the value of the copper in it. Our pennies have been made of copper plated zinc for decades now.

[a fool in paradise]

He was down to his last few dollars, and decided to take his chances at one of the one-armed bandits. He put the silver dollar in, pulled the lever and won.

If he was putting SILVER dollars in rather than Sakojaweas, he was throwing away good currency.

On the other hand, if he was playing with half dollars, some are silver and some are not.

[mrs. a]

“Most likely it was either a child raiding their parents coin collection...”

When I was but a wee tot, my dad kept a stack of real silver dollars on top of his dresser, too high for us kids to reach (yeah, right.)

I remember hooking a few to buy cigarettes when my allowance wouldn’t cover the price of a pack.

Please don’t tell him...

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks nickcarraway. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[exit82]

The pennies before 1982 are made of 95% copper.

1982 was a hybrid year. Since then, the pennies are mostly zinc with a copper wash. That’s why they are lighter than the older pennies.

The older pennies have about 1.5 cents of copper in them now.