A Year - A Coin - An Event...
Clankeye
Posts: 3,928 ✭
The year: 1893
The Coin: 1893 Columbian half dollar commemorative. Being minted for the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (which actually opened in 1893). Brand new and shiny.
An event happening at the same time: Robert Peary is exploring north through Greenland, laying the groundwork for subsequent attempts to reach the North Pole for the first time.
Anybody else want to share a coin, the year it was minted, and an event in history that was happening during that time?
Clankeye
The Coin: 1893 Columbian half dollar commemorative. Being minted for the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (which actually opened in 1893). Brand new and shiny.
An event happening at the same time: Robert Peary is exploring north through Greenland, laying the groundwork for subsequent attempts to reach the North Pole for the first time.
Anybody else want to share a coin, the year it was minted, and an event in history that was happening during that time?
Clankeye
Brevity is the soul of wit. --William Shakespeare
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They'd pick one year and tell what all was going on in the world and quote some prices for coins in that year.
That is the only thing that I ever really liked about that mag.
1963 My 'first' marriage
1963 Corvette Stingray is made. I later buy one.
1963 My 'third ' wife is born.
1963 President Kennedy dies.
1963 Graduate from high school
1963 Sell a whitman folder of mostly gem uncirculated Peace
Dollars to a coin dealer on Bromfield Street in Boston for
a couple hundred dollars. To this day I wonder if the
thousands of dollars I am spending on MS 66 & MS 67
Peace Dollars are some of those same coins.
1976 Bicentennal commemorative quarter to commemorate the 250 birthday of the greatest nation in the world. first minted in 1975
An event happening at the same time: Bicentennal year was celebration all over the United States and this fine young American was born
I hate it when you see my post before I can edit the spelling.
Always looking for nice type coins
my local dealer
The coin - 1955 Doubled Die Obverse Lincoln cent
The event(s) - coinguy1 takes his first steps as a one year old and gets an early start on his "terrible twos".
first year of the wingedliberty series.
WWI: chemical weapons used on a wide scale in war
Russian Revolution forthcoming
great advances in science and technology.
British empire is dwindling
1969: Brian Ostro is born several days after they
land on the moon and starts collecting in 1981.
The coin: silver dollar
An event happening at the same time: As the last of the Seated Liberty dollars were being struck, Congress was already working on demonitizing the silver dollar and making the gold dollar the standard legal tender. In other words, the bimetal system that started with this country's coinage and settled on a fixed 15 to 1 exchange ratio between silver and gold had ended. The US went the way of Great Britain in adopting the gold standard so it woulnd't have to change the weights of coins based on the relative price fluctuations between silver and gold.
In 1853, the flood of gold coming from California drove up the relative price of silver, and since then the silver dollar was worth more in silver bullion than face value and ceased to circulate. When the Coinage Act of 1873 passed, the standard silver dollar was worth $1.02 in gold dollars. By passing the Act, silver dollars were no longer struck, though Congress approved the minting of trade dollars (worth about $1.05 in gold dollars when first minted in July of that year) for use in trade with China and Japan.
Silver was legal tender in single transactions up to $5.00, but lenders and merchants were not obligated to accept payment in silver for any amount more than that. The money supply shrank, and calls for the reinstatement of the bimetal system were immortalized in W.J. Bryant's famous "Cross of Gold" speech.
Obscurum per obscurius
1945 - the first time a nuclear device was used as a weapon of war
1945 - the end of WWII
The Coins: 1861-O Half Dollar
The Event: The election of 1860 was over and Lincoln won. The South, fearful of what Lincoln might do, seceeds from the Union. On January 28, 1861 Louisiana declares independence from the United States. The New Orleans mint changes hands from the U.S. to the State of Louisiana, yet continues making half dollars. By May, Louisiana joins the Confederacy and finally finishes its stock of gold and silver ending production of coins, all with the dies of the Federal government. The war has begun for states rights.
Tom
The Coin: $20 Liberty Gold Piece, dated 1860
The Event: The Confederate Submarine Hunley attacks and sinks a Union ship. The first submersible craft to ever sink another ship in war. The Hunley sinks, all hands lost. On board is Lt. George Dixon. In his pocket, a $20 Liberty Gold Piece, dated 1860.
I had to throw this in here, because The Hunley facinates me. There is a really great website run by The Friends of the Hunley. If you've never been there do yourself a favor and go. It gets better all the time.
Some really great responses from you guys so far. I appreciate it.
Clankeye
The chain cent is made, starting on my brother's birthday, March 1, and ending on my birthday, March 12
1987- I am born March 12; Les Mis opens just under 12 hours later on Broadway.
Jeremy