1897 Philadelphia Mint Set With Gold

I put this set together in honor of my paternal grandfather, who was born in 1898. The obvious question would be; Why would I assemble a set for him a year before he was born? Therein lies the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey used to say).

I grew up in the 1960's in Maryville, Missouri. Back then it was common after the seasons plantings were done for family, friends, and neighbors to gather at someone's porch every Friday evening. The men folk sat on one side of the porch, the women on the other side. We kids, usually numbering a dozen or more and we could play all the games we wanted and didn't have to worry about being called in at dark.

Almost all of the men had served in World War I or World War II, but it was pretty rare for any of them to say much about those times. I would often set on the side of the house nearest the men and listen to what they talked about. On occasion I'd get lucky and hear a darn or hell, which was about as profane as any subject ever got.

Only once did I hear my grandfather talk about WWI and even after all these years, I can still hear his story. He went with four of his friends to enlist in the armed services at the Nodaway County Courthouse in Maryville. Three of his friends intended to join the Army, while one wanted to join the Navy. When it came time for my grandfather to stand in front of the Army recruiting sergeant he told the truth about his birthdate, which turned out to be several months too early for him to enlist. All three of his friends were enlisted in the Army, as they had wished, and so did the lone friend who had chosen the navy.

My grandfather went back the next day and made sure the army recruiter didn't see him get in the line for the navy enlistment. He told them he was born a year earlier than he actually was, and apparently there was nothing needed as far as identification was concerned, and he was enlisted in the navy.

The only wound my grandfather suffered while in the navy was stepping on a sea urchin on a beach front. Other than that his ship never actually saw any battle.

The reason he told the story or at least it seemed to me, was that his buddy who had also joined the navy returned home safe and sound, while only one of the three army buddies came home.

So for the rest of his life, as far as the government was concerned, my grandfather was born a year earlier than he actually was. That always made me wonder about those two days my grandfather attempted to enlist and what might have happened if the circumstances had been different. What if the army recruiter would have accepted my grandfather and just listed his birth date a year earlier. Would my grandfather have made it three out of four army buddies who never returned home?

My grandfather would have never met my paternal grandmother, my father would never have been born, and consequently, neither would I.

So this set was assembled in honor of the year in which my grandfather was always listed by the government as having been born, rather than his real birth year. Too, it reminds me that the past and the present may change the fate of the future, even for those choices that might seem insignificant.

As some of you may know, I collect by date, rather than by type or sets. This is an example of one of the dates I especially loved building. One of the reasons I'm showing it here is that perhaps a few other people might consider a different way of collecting. Instead of collecting strictly by type only, it would not be much harder, for many dates, to collect a solid date representation of many different types.

How about a set of 1856 with a Half Cent, large cent, Three Cent Silver, Seated half dime, dime, quarter, and half, and if you had the bucks, even a super nice Seated dollar. And if you had the super major bucks, toss in a Flying Eagle!

Another example might be an 1866 set, although that would be a big buck set to put together, with a small cent, Two Cents, 3 cents nickel, 3 cents silver, Seated half dime, dime, quarter and half, and a Seated dollar too!

Or maybe an 1883 set with three different nickel types alone!

So as you are working on your type sets, it probably isn't much more difficult to assemble a single year to get a lot of types under that single year. Plus, if you ever decide to sell something you will get much more attention by selling a year set rather than the pieces and parts of a type set. I've sold a few of my year sets and always did much, much better than if I had sold the coins individually. This 1897 is not a set I'd ever sell.

I wanted to share my grandfather's story and a suggestion of another way to approach collecting.