what's it worth to ya'?

the other day, for some reason, i found myself sitting on the floor rolling coins. no, brett and i are not THAT desperate for money...yet. but, i noticed that our coin jar was starting to overflow and since i've got nothing to do at the moment i decided that it was my immediate duty to roll those coins. $12 dollars later i came across an odd looking coin. i tossed it aside, adding it to the growing pile of foreign currency at my side. when you travel you always end up with the odd coin here and there and it seems shameful to just throw it away. some day one of my nieces will probably get these coins as a gift. i'm the "cheap" aunt...

back to the odd coin.

later when i was returning the remaining change to the jar i came across this odd coin for the second time. this time i took the time to look at it a little more closely to see which country it was from. it was hard to tell at first. the coin looked OLD. i could see that it was a penny, but my buddy Abe was nowhere to be found. i checked the date. 1919. is that normal? have i ever seen a coin that old before? i tried to remember when the production of coins started but then quit when i couldn't even remember how old our country is. turns out this was not an american coin as the picture on the back was of George V. what IS this strange coin, i thought.

i began my google search with "one penny, 1919." many things came up about lincoln pennies. one link said, " something something $17,000!!!" i started to get excited! i refined my search. "one penny, 1919, coin, george v." what i found was not as exciting as $17,000 but as exciting as $2!!! my penny is worth $2 to collectors on ebay!

turns out brett's uncle slipped him this coin on our wedding day. a good luck charm? i'm not sure. at any rate he told brett it was from the "old country." brett had since forgotten about the coin and somehow it ended up in our change jar. while it is just a penny, now worth 2 bucks, it was worth a whole afternoon of fun for me! -sn