The day my father was swindled was a red letter day for me.
Dad spoke 17 languages, had a good job, a rapidly expanding staff, went abroad every other week and was always right. He was perfect, or at least, he believed so. Nothing his children did whether at school, in sports, or at home was good enough or worthy of praise. That would be annoying to anyone but especially to a young child.
To discover my father had been conned was thus, not only a day of intense pleasure for a me at age 7 but also a confirmation that my father was not God.
One sunny summer day after visiting a distant plumber in West London (plumbers nearby refused to work for my father because he always complained about their poor work and paid only part of their bill), we went to the antiques market in Portobello Road. My father liked to look at antiques but didn't collect. Suddenly it began to rain heavily. my father pulled me into a dark dirty smelly alley. While we adjusted to the gloom, we realised there was an old tramp sitting on an oil drum at a table. There were 3 things on top, a half used candle, a tobacco tin with a pretty picture on the lid, and a worn old copper coin.
My father picked up the coin, looked at it, asked "Would you like this ?". I said "No, not really" but my father ignored me. "How much ?" he asked. "2 shillings and 6 pence (12 1/2p-£0.125), Guvnor" said the tramp. My father gave him the money, gave me the coin, and we stepped out of the alley, the rain having stopped.
When I got home, I went round to see my friend, Paul. He looked it up in his catalogue, discovered it was a farthing of William IV dated 1835 in F worth 3 old pence (1p). My father had paid 10 times as much as the coin was worth.
That was my first coin and it started my interest in coins.
Since then my interest in coins has led me into history, geography, culture, languages, to do research and give talks.
Unfortunately I've mislaid the coin so I can't show you it but there's a really splendid example on
http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/pi...rth.html#w4.
Posted 01/13/2017 11:53 am
