Buffaloed

Yesterday I returned home from a quick run to the local supermarket. As I sorted out my change, I found that I had been given, not an ordinary nickel, but a Buffalo nickel.

Buffalo nickels were minted between 1913 and 1938. This means that mine is between 88 and 113 years old. I can't say for sure, because it's so worn from use that the date has rubbed off. There's a lot of wear around the edge of the coin too.

I'm debating whether to find a coin shop to have it appraised. I'm not fooling myself into believing it might actually be worth something, but I did find a similarly worn one being listed on eBay for $2500.  No joke; the date is rubbed away on that one too, so there must be some way to determine when such things were issued no matter what.

Anyway, I've been buffaloed. It's far from earth shattering, yet still a rather neat thing to happen.

The Coin Man

I'm not into coin collecting outside of an interest in how our money has changed over the years. Oh, I have a coin or two, and a few old bills, but nothing to amount to anything. But an old friend asked me if I was interested in meeting him at a coin show yesterday and I thought, why not? 

I took my old money with me simply to see what it was worth, although I expected little. Yet I needed a 1959 Lincoln penny so figured to find one there.

My money wasn't worth much, perhaps an extra 20 bucks above face value. That didn't surprise me; tales of wealth from such things are few and far between and never happen to you, do they? But I asked one dealer about getting that 1959, explaining during our conversation that it was to complete a picture from my parents' 50th Anniversary which had a penny from each year they were married attached to it. The 59 had fell off. He gave me one, and would take nothing for it. "It's really only worth marginally more than one cent, and I like that it's going to a good cause," he explained.

I thanked him, and took his business card. "Well, I know it won't amount to much, but I'll at least give you a shout out on my blog." He thanked me in return.

So, if any of you out there are into coin and currency collection as a hobby, I urge you to look up Dave Sutton. He works under Dave's Coin Dungeon, phone 810-599-8300, and his email is DaveS7273@hotmail.com. He's a great guy, and he'll be fair to you.

On a side note, I did buy a one dollar Canadian bill from 1954 for one US buck. Some things are just neat to have.