Two very different coins: guess what makes each (and both) important and valuable
lordmarcovan
Posts: 43,648 ✭✭✭✭✭
Coin #1: 1936 Mercury dime. I know you can't see the last digit of the date under the toning, but it's a 1936. These aren't huge pictures, but in each case the picture should be entirely sufficient for you to guess what makes each (and both) important and valuable.
Coin #2: 1827 (Square Base 2) Bust half.
Coin #2: 1827 (Square Base 2) Bust half.
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<< <i>are they 'groundbreaking'? >>
In a sense. But probably not in the sense you were thinking of.
<< <i>One is from your birthyear and the other is from your grandfather's birthyear? >>
In a sense yes... but no. Yes, I could've had a grandfather born in 1827, but you'd have to tack a few "greats" in front of his title. And was I born in 1936? Well, my father was born in 1938, so unless he had me when he was (negative) two years old...
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<< <i>are they 'groundbreaking'? >>
In a sense. But probably not in the sense you were thinking of.
<< <i>One is from your birthyear and the other is from your grandfather's birthyear? >>
In a sense yes... but no. Yes, I could've had a grandfather born in 1827, but you'd have to tack a few "greats" in front of his title. And was I born in 1936? Well, my father was born in 1938, so unless he had me when he was (negative) two years old... >>
My father was born in 1938 too... Lord, are you my brother?
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O_o
actually gave a little effort to this but came up with nothing unless it is the 2 obvious things, which i don't know
dime - ddo?
bust - rare die marriage? which I couldn't figure out from the small image and my lack of experience.
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The answer would be no, though I probably have found at least one 1936 Merc while diggin'- I've got more than a roll's worth in my metal detector finds album. And one of the coins WAS a find, but not in the ground. And the other was discovered by a family member of mine.
If the coin was in someone's pocket and that person was super-duper famous/infamous and that person died with it or did something amazing with it in their possession....and this history is WELL RECORDED then it might be worth something? That's my guess.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
no idea on the bust half
Here are some picture hints, which might give the whole thing away, or might just confuse everyone even more:
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
"Rosebud", indeed.
Y'all are far too literal and technical in your thinkin'.
But I'm enjoying the drawn-out reveal, even if I get booed off the stage for it later.
All of my coins are secure in a bank safe-deposit box.
Oh, I'm gonna milk this one for all it's worth, until somebody guesses right.
Hey, Wikipedia is my friend. It could be your friend, too, if you let it, and you're not up to speed on your classic cinema plot devices.
(Even once you've tracked that down, there's still a little reading between the lines to be done, but hey, you can do it.)
Edit to add: I consider it a high compliment indeed that some newb just used his second post to "booo" me.
I feel like i need to recruit Nicolas Cage a la National Treasure to help with this!!!
www.brunkauctions.com
Savoyspecial asked, "are they 'groundbreaking'?" I replied, "In a sense. But probably not in the sense you were thinking of." He was alluding to my metal detecting habit. But these were not detector finds. And yet, in a sense, they were indeed groundbreaking.
llafoe said (probably in jest): "One is from your birthyear and the other is from your grandfather's birthyear?" And I said yes and no. I was born in 1965, and my grandfathers in 1909 and 1916, so not technically. And yet they're both related to my "birthday" somehow, in different ways. But not in the literal sense. Beware of thinking too literally or technically in this puzzle.
DDO on the dime? I don't think so. Rare die marriage on the half? I wouldn't know. No reeding on the Merc? Not so- it has reeding.
The picture hints were an allusion to the 1941 Orson Welles film, Citizen Kane, and "Rosebud" was a well-known plot device in that story. (Which no doubt kept the audience guessing until the very end, much as I'm doing with y'all.) What does this "Rosebud" plot device have to do with me and my two coins? Well, now- I can't do ALL the work for you, or there wouldn't be much mystery left for me to savor, now, would there?
Bjorn said, "The first coin you found or were given, and the first coin you bought?" Again: yes and no. The first coin I indeed found (AND was given), but I did not buy the second one. It was found by a family member and given to me.
I'll go so far as to say Bjorn is barking up the right tree and getting quite warm.
It's the "Rosebud" plot device in the movie that's a hint, that's all. Like I said, Wikipedia is your friend. What was Rosebud? (Not the literal answer- Rosebud was a sled. But what was the significance of Rosebud?)
<< <i>Citizen Kane really doesn't have a whole lot to do with the puzzle, really. I don't even remember if I ever saw the whole movie in its entirety.
It's the "Rosebud" plot device in the movie that's a hint, that's all. Like I said, Wikipedia is your friend. What was Rosebud? (Not the literal answer- Rosebud was a sled. But what was the significance of Rosebud?) >>
Rosebud was a reminder of kane's lost/interrupted childhood.
Was this coin taken from you during the only happy time of your life that was cut short by a mother who had certainly become extremely wealthy and sent you east to be educated and to remove you from an abusive father?
Also, what do I win?
Let me think- Citizen Kane was produced by Orson Wells Mercury Theater.
Ron
<< <i>Rosebud was a reminder of kane's lost/interrupted childhood. >>
Mm hmm.
(I didn't have a lost or interrupted childhood. All things considered, mine was pretty good. But what are we gettin' at, here, hmm?)
Edit: Oops. Shoulda read Bjorn's post!
Ron
<< <i>... The first coin I indeed found (AND was given), but I did not buy the second one. It was found by a family member and given to me. >>
Hmmm... If you both found AND were given the Merc, then I'll guess that it was a coin that you were given as a child -- that you later lost, but recently found again.
As for the Half, I'll say that it is an heirloom piece discovered in the belongings of a dearly departed loved one, and now passed to you.
???
Coin #1 is literally that... Coin Number One.
It has been in my possession since Wednesday, November 25, 1976.
How do I know the date with such precision? Well, that was Thanksgiving Day, and I was setting the table for the traditional feast at my grandmother's house. I found the dime in her sideboard drawer with the silverware. You might say that's "the coin that started it all" for me. I told the story back in 2003.
Coin #2, the Bust half, is also a relic of my childhood collecting.
It was given to me by my stepmother Joan on Wednesday, December 28, 1977.
Again, I can pinpoint the date precisely, because that was my twelfth birthday. You can imagine the excitement of a 12-year-old collector at having been given such a coin. It's probably akin to a teen with a freshly-minted drivers licence getting a sports car for his birthday. Not a Ferrari, perhaps, but a sporty Mustang or something like that.
That was my first significant collector coin. My stepmother had apparently found it amongst the personal effects of her late uncle, who went by the colorful name of Orange Reo Kelly. As you can see in the pictures above, it has about XF45 detail. There's an old rim bump which has kept it out of TPG plastic, and I did dip it once or twice in my early collector days, but it still looks OK and has retoned a bit. I remember reading a story about Abe Lincoln earning his first dollar by paddling two men out to a steamboat in the middle of a river. Each threw a new half dollar in the bottom of his canoe. He was eighteen years old, so that would have been 1827. I don't know how accurate that story is, but it really fascinated me at the time.
These two are the only childhood pieces I have left. There was a semi-PL 1878-S AU Morgan dollar from my great-grandmother's desk, too, but I've since passed that down to a nephew. I intend to pass the Bust half down to a deserving heir on December 28, 2027, if I'm still kickin'. That will be its 200th birthday and the 50th anniversary of my ownership of it.
Sorry if I drew this out longer than necessary, but I had fun with it. I figured somebody would guess it eventually.
Hey- I never said these coins were "important and valuable" to anyone else- they're important and valuable to ME.
So the common element here is sentimental value.