You Can Buy Unclaimed Items, Just Not the Teeth-- Part 2

Among the 252 items at auction:  a signed 1983 Ryne Sandberg baseball card, coins from a  1622 shipwreck, Chicago World's Fair souvenirs and a six-sided "paddle wheel" harmonica.  Never heard of that last one.

But for those of a ghoulish bent, they don't auction ff hair or teeth.

The state is sitting on about $2 billion in unclaimed funds despite sending out about $220 million to companies and families over the last several years.  Among these beneficiaries were the children of a family that had left $1 million worth of Walgreen stock for over sixty years.

The safe deposit box items, worth an estimated $113,500, have been sitting in the state treasurers vault for a decade and will be sold to make room for more items.  Any items sold will help fix some of the state's budgetary problems.

A paddlewheel harmonica is one where three or more harmonicas are arrangedlike the paddle wheel of a steamboat where you can quickly switch from one harmonica to another.  E-Bay has several for sale.

No Teeth, Though.  --CooTeeth

New Design for the Lincoln Penny Goes Into Circulation Today in 1959

On February 12, 1959, the redesigned Lincoln penny -- with an image of the Lincoln Memorial replacing two ears of wheat on the reverse side -- went into circulation.

--CootAbe

Million-Dollar Penny

From the March 22, 2015, Parade Magazine.

A rare 1792 Birch Cent will be auctioned by Stack's Bowers during the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Spring Expo March 26-29 in Baltimore.

It's one of only a handful of the original coins still in existence that were produces just after the founding of the U.S. Mint.

One sold earlier this year for more than $2.5 million.

Follow Up:  It sold for $1.175 million.

Chump Change Indeed--  DaCoot

Preparing for the World War I Centennial

From the March 9, 2012, Silver Coins Today "WWI Centennial Silver Dollar Commemorative Coins proposed" by Rhonda Key.

Also, the House of Representatives in Congress introduced a bill calling for up to 350,000 coins to be issued in 2017 and the "World War I American Centennial Commemorative Coin Act H.R. 4107," sponsored by Representative Doug Lambora. The U.S. declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. The war had actually been going on since 1914.

 --Cooter

First Time Out and Finds a Trove of Roman Coins

From the Oct. 18, 2012, Yahoo! News, ABC News "First-Time Treasure Hunter Discovers Trove of Roman-Era Coins" by Suzan Clarke.

The lucky dog.

An unnamed man bought a basic metal detector in Britain and has uncovered a trove of Roman coins, believed to be the largest in English history.  The Roman solidi, dating back to the 4th century are estimated to be worth $160,000 in U.S. dollars, or 100,000 English pounds.

The first-timer found 40 pieces and then brought them to the shop where he bought the detector in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire and then returned with the shop's owners and a better detector and found 119 more.

The coins are 22 carat gold and in great shape.  The Solidu coins date from the closing years of the 4th century and were typically issued as sacrifice to the gods.

They were found on private land.

Would That Ever Be Neat to Do.  --Cooter

1812 Bits: Hero Remembered-- Get Your Star-Spangled Banner Coins

1812 Bits-- commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812.


1. HERO REMEMBERED-- A program was held in Hartford, Connecticut honoring Commodore Thomas MacDonough, hero of the Battle of Lake Champlain.


2. GET YOUR STAR-SPANGLED COINS-- The US Mint has begun selling these coins starting Mar. 5th and available through mid-December. A total of 100,000 gold ones and 500,000 silver are being made.

The front of the silver one shows a woman waving an American flag with Fort McHenry in the background. The front of the gold one has warships and the words, "Oh say can you see."

Gotta Get Me One. --Cooter

About Those Souvenir Oval Pennies

From the Feb. 10, 2010, National Geographic.

I'm pretty sure most of you have ne or more of those funny-looking pressed oval pennies somewhere in a drawer or box. Call them "Penny" souvenirs if you will, but there is money to be made with them.

In 1893, a Chicagoan jeweler used a metal-rolling machine to stretch coins and press the words "Columbian Exposition" into them. Today, thousands of these pressed coins say "I was there" not only in the US, but around the world.

There is even a company called Press-A-Penny that manufactures the rolling machines. American customers put two or four quarters into the machine along with a penny which will be pressed. Probably four quarters in Chicago where you go to get ripped off.

Few of the coins are worth anything, but then there's that memory thing.

Some neat and somewhat rare ones:

1893-- Columbian Exposition
1927-- Lindbergh's flight (some of the ones from this era had a punched hole in them for a key chain or necklace.
1963-- Oswald shot.
1991-- Desert Storm
1904-- St. Louis World's Fair
1935-- World Series
1977-- Hindenburg anniversary
2004-- West Nile Virus

I Think i Have About Ten or Twenty. --Cooter

Don't Want Them Dollar Coins

From Dec. 15, 2011, Chicago Tribune.

Production of the new presidential dollar coins is being slashed as yet another effort to get Americans to stop using their dollar bills has evidently failed. But, these are not the only dollar coins that haven't done well.

1794-1795 Flowing Hair
1795-1894 Bust
1836-1839 Gobrecht
1840-1873 Seated Liberty
1849-1854 Liberty Head

1854-1856 Small Indian head
1856-1889 Large Indian head
1873-1885 Trade
1878-1904 and 1921 Morgan

1921-1928 and 1934-1935 Peace
1971-1978 Eisenhower
1979-1981 (short run in 1999) Susan B. Anthony
2000 to current Sacagawea
2007 to current Presidents.

I Remember the Last Four. --Cooter