The relic was collected in the 1950s by a Leeds City Transport employee named James Edwards, who tallied fares from bus and tram drivers at the end of each day and counted them.
Edwards would set aside coins that couldn't be cashed — including foreign or counterfeit currency — and take them home.
Now 77, Peter Edwards recently revisited the coin and researched its origins.
When my mom was pregnant (with me in 1958), my dad got a 1858 Flying Eagle penny as part of his change from the bus driver in Hollywood. They decided it would go to their first born. Sadly, a friend of my brother broke into our house and stole it along with Kennedy silver dollars and other coin/currency my parents had collected. Spent it on soda and candy. I ran into him one day in the neighorhood and beat the shite out of him.
ReplyDeletedamn, that's a terrible outcome for a cool thing saved for the kid! And sadly, that's typical of kids, to steal change and blow it on stupid shit... I've heard of that dozens of times, and often found interesting old money which I'm sure made it into circulation specifically that way. If you know about the red inked 1953 5 dollar bill? One showed up about 20 years ago when I had a job with a cash register. I doubt it's been in circulation long. Of course I pulled a normal 5 out of my wallet and swapped it for the unusual red ink 5...
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