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 Replies: 59 / Views: 12,419 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4211 Posts |
Very nice coin Kevro...and I love the "bidiots" Raymo...hahahah
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4420 Posts |
I don't mind owning a holed coin, especially if it has a counterstamp!  Then too, some coins, like this "pastry cutter" needed a hole:  Now, what collector wouldn't want one of these?  |
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Pillar of the Community
Germany
1852 Posts |
I have no problems owning a coin with a hole in it.
I have two in my collection - in each case foreign coins of which less than 5-10 of each are known.
I can certainly forgive a little hole in exchange for extreme rarity!
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Pillar of the Community
778 Posts |
Hi ExoGuy,
That 'apothecary' piece is REALLY neat. Can you tell us the attribution?
Cheers,
Bill
Edited by BillSnyder
11/06/2014 2:11 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4420 Posts |
Hi Bill ... That's a swizzle-stick in that tall glass, although it can be mistaken for a mortar & pestle. The issuer of the above counterstamped two real or two-bit piece was Robert Flanagan of Philadelphia. He ran a tavern, and his punch was the house drink. His tavern, Vulcan Hall, was situated in the Lyon's Hotel. I read that these early taverns were gathering places for local merchants to to business with those bringing goods into port. Flanagan was in business for many years, mid-1830's on. In the late 1850's or 1860's, Flanagan issued some small, copper tokens that have long been listed as Civil War tokens. Logo style counterstamps with pictorials like this are quite popular among collectors. There are around two dozen of his counterstamps known, and the copper tokens are quite plentiful. A great many Spanish coins were counterstamped in the few decades prior to the Civil War. This attests to the fact that they were commonly in circulation back then. Many of these counterstamped pieces tend to be holed. It may have been a practice to string coins together and/or merchants may done this with some purpose in mind ... |
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Pillar of the Community
New Zealand
526 Posts |
I found a dime with 5 holes in a bulk lot purchase. Some manic driller - but they were evenly spaced
Edited by Bas S Warwick
11/06/2014 4:46 pm
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New Member
United States
20 Posts |
I think you will be happy with that coin at that price.
I realize that holes are generally viewed as damage and bring a coin's value down, sometimes way down.
But I wanted to mention that is was common for people in Central America in the 17th and 18th centuries to put small holes in cob silver coins and wear them as jewelry. Particularly some really really nice kleppe and royal cob pieces -- worth thousands of dollars -- that have little holes in them at the top. Of course, the ones without holes are considered more valuable and rare, but I just wanted to point out that a hole does not necessary drain all the value out of a coin.
Also, I know a guy who specifically collects U.S. colonial coins with holes in them. He must have hundreds of them at this point. He isn't bothered by the holes, has assembled a collection at a fraction of the usual cost, and he has done research on all the various reasons people have historically put holes in coins.
So perhaps beauty is, to some extent, in the eye of the beholder.
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Pillar of the Community
New Zealand
526 Posts |
Or...... in the eye of the beholer  |
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Pillar of the Community
New Zealand
526 Posts |
One sometimes wonders why 1967  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3229 Posts |
Here is my holed 1721 A, 2 Reales. Ben Franklin would have been 15 years old when this was minted in Madrid. Maybe some Spanish sailor sailed across the pond with this in his pockets...or not:)   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
567 Posts |
I love holed coins, and I snatch them up any chance I get, for me it adds history to the coin, and if everyone else thinks that it destroys the value than all the better for me! I love them, and I would encourage you to get the holed coin, coins with stories are the interesting ones, and a hole means that someone cared about it. I would rather hold what used to be someones good luck charm then something that sat in a bank bag.
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Pillar of the Community
New Zealand
526 Posts |
Quote:
I love holed coins, and I snatch them up any chance I get, for me it adds history to the coin, and if everyone else thinks that it destroys the value than all the better for me! I love them, and I would encourage you to get the holed coin, coins with stories are the interesting ones, and a hole means that someone cared about it. I would rather hold what used to be someones good luck charm then something that sat in a bank bag. Interesting comment Arael - I will look at holed coins with a different viewpoint. History rules! |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
856 Posts |
The wear around the hole of TJ's 2 Reals suggest it was worn as a token or something. It's part of the history of the coin. As it is of some particular denominations. There was for example an idea that being touched by the King (who ruled by the Grace of God) would cure certain illnesses. In England there was even a 'Touching Ceremony' and participants were given a small gold coin called an angel which was officially holed as a souvenir. The writer and dictionary compiler Samuel Johnson wore his his whole life. It can now be seen in the British museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explor...h-piece.aspxOr this:   During the English Civil War the town of Pontefract was besieged by Parliamentary forces three times. Money was in short supply and so they cut up and stamped pieces of silver plates to use. Times were hard and plague broke out at one point. Is it any wonder that many survivors took to piercing a coin to wear afterwards as a remembrance of their trouble? I have a Mercury dime that's holed for luck. OK, I know she's not Mercury, but Mercury is the God of change and chance making such a piece popular amongst gamblers. Leap year dates are supposed to be 'extra lucky'. Mine is from 1944, the last leap year of issue. See. Holes with coins around them can be fun! . Edited by Tom Goodheart
11/21/2014 10:34 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4420 Posts |
Cool coin and story there, Tom .... Actually, the "hole posting" is quite cool! While reading a contemporary 1850's account, relative to a young slave girl in the Deep South, it was said that she had a holed, silver Half Dime strung about her neck. It may have been for luck, a "keep me and never go broke" coin or simply to illustrate some worth. It's the only writing of such that I've yet stumbled upon, relative to a holed coin. As a collector of counterstamps, I've run across a good many Spanish pieces with American merchant marks, so they're obviously ones that once circulated here. Oftentimes, the merchant was promoting some recreational business. The price of admission to many shows back in the 1850's was typically two bits and sometimes fifty cents for larger events, like the circuses. Since a fair percentage of the counterstamped, Spanish two reale pieces tend to be holed, I've long thought that these were holed by the issuers and perhaps strung together for the ticket taker to give out in change. Thus, the counterstamped coin would then be a memento to stimulate word-of-mouth advertising; eventually, to be spent, serving a dual purpose. The holes are sometimes neat, sometimes crude. IMHO, the not knowing or speculation about the "hole" coin that can be derived from a given piece adds to its' overall appeal for collectors.  Here's a Spanish two reale piece that advertised the saloon of J.L. Barnes in Bryan, texas, circa 1880. Drinking was then, still is, a recreational activity it seems. Edited by ExoGuy
11/21/2014 12:00 pm
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Pillar of the Community
New Zealand
526 Posts |
Tom Goodhearts post set off a old memory of Pontefract Cakes which was a favouriteof mine when I lived in UK many moons ago. I had a thought just now that the symbol on the Pontefract Cakes might be from a coin, but it appears not....anyway I made many holes in my Pontefract Cakes over the years of munching on them.  |
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Replies: 59 / Views: 12,419 |
First Page
Posted 11/06/2014 02:45 am
