Unlikely Coin Collector

                                                          A Recollection

My mother, Mary Bluford Turner, was an unlikely coin collector. She acquired U.S. coins, not in the sense of an organized systematic hobby but largely as a random finder and saver of coins. When she was a young woman, she developed the habit of saving every old coin she found, Indian head pennies, Barber dimes, Buffalo nickels,  Over the years her collection grew. She traded dollar bills for silver dollars.

She was especially fond of the Peace Silver Dollar. My sister and I were given a Peace Dollar with our birth year on it, and a two dollar bill with the admonition to never spend because "you will never be broke."

 Following her own advice, she was never broke.The Peace Dollar was minted from 1921 to 1928 and then again in 1934 and 1935. It was designed by Anthony de Francisci. It was to memorialize the peace following the Armistice of WWI. On the obverse is Liberty. On the reverse is a perched bald eagle. It was 90% silver and 10% copper.

In her collection was the  Morgan Walking Liberty Silver Dollar, and an 1888 V-Nickel.
Once when a coin dealer drove from Little Rock to Pine Bluff to offer her a quarter for an Indian head penny, she reasoned he would not have come that far for a worthless coin. She refused the offer. She did not understand the fundamentals of grading a coin. Whether the dealer was trying to take advantage of her was never known.

When her brother, James, came home from serving in Europe during WWII, in the Rhineland Campaign, he gave her a box full of European coins. They were coins which had been in circulation and brought home as souvenirs. Mary valued them and kept them alongside her other coins which were in a locked metal box under her bed. They included a 1936 German 3 cent
Reischspenny, a 1930 George IV sixpence (Great Britain), a Republica Peruane Veintiuno 10 Tavos.

Throughout her life she continued to save coins and collected every Kennedy Half Dollar that came her way.
       
When I was about thirteen, I won ten Peace Dollars on the local KOTN Radio Station. My entry was selected. I was elated.

(c) copyright 2014