Over the last few years I have been trying to come to grips with the aging process. I waited a few years before joining AARP, I spent the time to take care of health issues, and I even took to heart an article written for the AARP magazine that asks what I want to be when I grow up (which I will write about another time). Looking back, my return to my collecting interests was the beginning of what would blossom into a full blown mid-life crisis.
I decided to give into my mid-life crisis and as long as it does not affect much, my wife is letting me go.
As a teenager of the 1970s, I was entranced by the muscle cars of the day. I wanted a muscle car but I was too young and could not afford them. I remember that the three most popular cars where I grew up was the Pontiac GTO, Pontiac Trans-Am, and the Ford Mustang. My neighbor had an Oldsmobile Cutlass but only had the 350 cu. in. V8 which was nothing like the Olds 442 engine!I have always had an appreciation for the cars built prior to 1980. Actually, with few exceptions, I enjoy seeing all cars built prior to 1978, about the time that cars became bland. Exceptions are the Corvettes made any time and the new Dodge muscle cars particularly a Dodge Challenger R/T Classic.
By now you are probably asking what this has to do with coins, other than it will take a lot of them to buy a car?
This past weekend I attended the annual Rockville Antique and Classic Car Show. With more than 60 cars and motorcycles, it has to be one the larges classic car show at least in this region. Anyone who loves old cars will feel like a kid on a playground when you climb over the hill into the field. This is the same show that I found the Plymouth Gold Duster brochure advertising the “Old West” Coin Collection last year. While I did not find anything this year, I did have an encounter with classic coins in a classic car.
I was looking in a 1951 Hudson Hornet (here is the information about Jay Leno’s Hornet to see what a Hornet looks like since my camera died by then) and saw change in the ashtray. I asked the owner about the coins and he said that they were found in the car when he bought it from someone’s barn over 10 years ago. After he finished restoring the car he put the change into the ashtray for effect.
After talking with the owner I told him I collected coins and his eyes lit up. He reached into the car, scooped up the change, and asked if I could identify some coins he did not know anything about. As he was searched the coins he dropped a 1905 Liberty Head “V” nickel and a 1927 Standing Liberty quarter in my hand. He was surprised that I not only knew about the coins but had some back stories on them.One of the problems was that he cleaned the coins. Apparently, they were so encrusted with junk and dirt that he thought that cleaning them would be a good idea. While both coins are quite common even if they were not cleaned, whatever value they had was reduced by the harsh cleaning. The silver coins are minimally worth their value in silver.
The car’s owner asked me to write down the information and returned the coins to the ashtray. I left him with some web links including a link to this blog. He asked me not to use his name and I hope he had a good time at the show. I know I did!
If you want to see the pictures I did take at the Rockville auto show, you can see the pictures on Photobucket.