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Numismatic highlights of a quick Chicago trip
Weiss
Posts: 9,942 ✭✭✭✭✭
Just back from a couple of days in Chicago. While there we managed to get to the Field Museum, where I made a special visit to the Grainger gem and mineral collection and was happy to find several pieces of American gold coinage tucked in between, donated by noted Chicago dealer Harlan Berk:
We also got to the Chicago branch of the Federal Reserve, which has a very well done, family-friendly, and free with valid US ID money museum, where you can:
Walk across $50,000 in clad
See what $1M looks like in $1s, $20s, and I think $100s:
And also see loads of currency and many coins, from our earliest pieces, to a well-done war script section, to classic and even modern pieces:
Close-up of the above dollar:
We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
--Severian the Lame
--Severian the Lame
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I love the Field Museum. It's one of a handful of good reasons to go to Chicago.
From Chicago, Field Museum very cool.
POST NUBILA PHOEBUS / AFTER CLOUDS, SUN
Love for Music / Collector of Dreck
I recall that they have some (live) lungfish there which were installed when the place opened almost 100 years ago.
Very cool!! Love the Draped Bust coin at the end.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
almost as nice as
Very nice indeed.
Enjoyed the photos. Thanks for posting them.
Close. The Shedd Aquarium, which is next to the Field, had a lungfish that died this February, aged 85. It was brought to the Shedd at the time of the 1933 World's Fair.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Very cool, but the spacing in the field museum seems odd. Lots of empty space, and oddly placed coins.
I believe that the spacing was done to allow for the placing of additional coins in the future, should they ever get them, without having to move the ones that my former employer, Harlan Berk, gave them.
TD
Great pictures... with all the business trips I have made to Chicago, and a nine month consulting position just outside of Chicago, I never went to these places. Cheers, RickO
The million dollars in $100's is in a suitcase that you can have your picture taken with. Also the #1 $10 Fed red seal on Chicago, the first printed is displayed along with one of the $500 first charter notes of which only
ONE IS KNOWN IN PRIVATE HANDS, as well as large size $5000 and $10,000 notes, none of which are know in private hands. Lots of numismatic items on view. The Fed exhibit is worth a visit.
And not just a selfie--they actually take your picture and print it out, free. They also have multiple counterfeit pieces of currency on display, and you can test your detection skills.
They had kind of a plain looking 1922? Peace dollar in one of the displays. Looked a little out of place, until you read the caption: It was found by one of the workmen during the creation of the museum, so they put it on display
Some additional pieces from the Fed display:
--Severian the Lame
I've lived my whole life in Chicago and have never gone. Time for me to change that.
Best part is that they give every visitor a bag of shredded currency. True story. I thought they'd stopped that practice years ago. But everyone gets a fist-sized bag of shredded dollars. And yes, you can see some people immediately offer theirs for sale on eBay. What a country
--Severian the Lame
When the Chicago Fed first started a museum in the early 1970's it was in the basement is was easily accessible from the Jackson entrance. Now it's is on the main floor and has metal detectors to go through, but worth the hassle. When it started they had no gold or colonial coins and I was contacted at Rarcoa to supply things they needed. paper money was no problem as they had a great collection in the vaults and on the walls throughout the building. I still get to help them out giving special tours explaining the exhibits for special group tours.
Great pics. I Haven't been there in over 20 years. I guess I need to schedule another trip to Chicago.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide