Found Coin, Yard searching Options

[Denise]

Our son was testing out his new detector in the yard, and he found this coin
.......

He's doing great finding stuff. I guess he had a great teacher.....Right Gat? :P
.................Its a cute coin anyway. :D

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[TWA]

Our son was testing out his new detector in the yard, and he found this coin
.......        

He's doing great finding stuff. I guess he had a great teacher.....Right Gat?  :P
.................Its a cute coin anyway.  :D

Dont be so mean Denise
At least you could hide a dollar piece :o

If you want the boy to become keen
Its best you try not to be mean ;)

TWA

[gold_tutor]

That's terrrrrrrific, Denise. And nice picture, too.

Show the back side in the next picture, okay? All coins and tokens have 2 sides :P

I know you homeschool, so let me add a word or two to your boy's vocabulary list this week, okay?

exonumia

If you don't have a Merriam-Webster handly, consider placing this URL on your "personal tool bar" <---a Netscape browser function or on your IE5.5+ "favorites."
Webster's Newest Dictionary

You should find the following:

One entry found for exonumia.
Main Entry: exo·nu·mia
Pronunciation: "ek-s&-'nü-mE-&, -'nyü-
Function: noun plural
Etymology: New Latin, from exo- + English numismatic + New Latin -ia
Date: 1966
: numismatic items (as tokens, medals, or scrip) other than coins and paper money

Now you have to look up "numismatic" I always loved dictionary exercises in grammar and spelling classes when I was a grade/middle schooler back in the 50s...a fascinating world out there in dictionary land, yes?!!! Remember?? We were required to construct a sentence or two using our "new word" properly, etc.? Man, I LOVED creating the wild sentences. However, "I love exonumia" just isn't gonna cut it, okay? that's cheatin'.... ;)

All kidding aside, exonumia is a WHOOOOOOLE 'nuther world out there...and a very exciting one, at least to exonumiasts...you see, I'm married to an exonumiast. I didn't appreciate exonumia before I did, because I, as a numismatist (nu-MIS-ma-tist), thought what I collected (coins-Lincoln and Indian Head pennies in particular) was more valuable than "any silly old token, or button or medallion."

Turns out, exonumiast enthusiasts (<---might need to tongue-twirl that'un a couple times... ) usually have a much rarer set of items to hunt for and try to find buyers for / build collectors of in order to swap with others or to sell.

So many exonumia items are constructed of base metals. As such, their paint wears off under acid skin touch by people placing them on lapels, or shoving into "coin" slots on machines, etc., or in your case, by some grubby fingered child or adult who shoved it into their pants or jacket pocket from which it bounced, and landed in the dirt for your boy to locate with his detector!!! Also, base metals usually react harshly to both moisture and soil components, especially the "pin-back" buttons exonumiast items. It would appear your son's cool find is of aluminum origin.

He can now start an official collection of "different base metal tokens" and proudly display them at any rally or MD meet he wants to attend. The industry makes little clear VINYL flips which are inert (<---won't react chemically with the contents tucked inside) and "stand up, 'inverted V-shaped" when folded, in order to show off both sides of a piece without adding damage to the cool find.

And then there is the whole world of "how do you clean" or "restore" or "preserve" your budding exonumiast's cool find. I'll answer that one later if you want to know.

The other fun thing about finding tokens is this,...
Besides collecting various types by metallic content, or by various designs (in this case --mice???) or various "values" stamped on the back, shapes, etc.,
there is a whooooooole study of early "medium of exchange" in this country.

Most folks don't stop to think about the fact that when the Pilgrims came here, they didn't have any official "American money/coins" with which to conduct business. No coinage constituted a major roadblock to building budding America. The early settlers HATED England enough, they didn't want to swap THAT pocket change with each other. Besides, they didn't have that many pence and tupence between the the whole lot of them to barter for groceries. Besides, the Native Americans didn't know King George's image from a stamped image of an Aztec chief having a bad hair day. (See, there's another whole history topic gig for your youngun's... :D ...bet they're beggin' me to quit anytime now, right )

BUT...the point I'm trying to make is this...EARLY colonial and territorial money (from a previous Bowers and Merena prices realized catalog blurb):

Not long thereafter a popular 1820 North West Company beaver token, used as a medium of exchange by Native Americans in what is now Oregon, graded VF-20 brought $2,530.

were and are considered tokens, much as Chuck E Cheese game tokens are.

And early token makers of course, were machinists with skill at making dies and punching blanks, as they began to create "early money" to help the struggling pilgrims get commerce going here in America.

And yes, if one has a perfect example, (perfectly centered, perfectly struck, perfectly preserved, etc.,) THAT one has a different value--often lesser frankly-- than if one finds a "wierd one" a.k.a., missing a few letters, struck off-center because the blank bounced in the collar, or double struck because the "coin/token ejector" was having a bad hair day, and it got stomped on twice or more, etc.)
...all these add value to a collection and put more money into the exonumiasts' pockets by other collectors.

(Us old folks had to collect SOMETHING before baseball cards were invented, yes?.....hahahaha. BTW, I had 3 Mickey Mantles in 6th grade in my collection.)

Guess what? Token companies were early metallic button makers as well...
As you can see...this is probably info overload...BUT,

...I wanted to stress the importance of your young one's cool find, and hopefully open a whole world to him and you as his proud family, as well as the other thread mateys out here in CP land.

Then there is the world of bibliophilia, scripophilia, philatelists....oh, it's a big world out there!! AND to think you're sweet son grabbed apiece of the tail of a tiger by his first fun find. (Google search will help find examples of each...and then there's good old ebay for "PICTURES"....) Ayup, there's BOOKS on this stuff...

Antiques & Collectibles/Coins & Medals
... mint issues, private, state and territorial coins, commemorative issues, and proofs
Number of Pages: DatePublished: 1998/06/01 Binding: HARDCOVER ... ...
Territorial Coins and Mooooore.....

....found that'un by typing in "territorial coins" into Google's blank search box...

Now, turn that cute token over, please.
Take another pix, and let us see the backside, Mom.
(And his beautiful big grin would be great also, okay?)

[Denise]

Thanks TWA....I Thought I was being nice, going out in the winter, and digging in the dirt to hide it. :D :P

:) WOW! :D :)
I love your post's Megan!
I'm going to let someone else answer that one. ;)
Maybe "The Boy Detector" can address that.
Here is the other side.......

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[Trilobite]

Actually TWA I thought it was pretty fun.
Its the experience that counts ;) :D
priceless.....
And thanks for the info Tutor, I love tokens(especially the Chuck E Cheese ones :) )
thanks again. Your stuff is always full of info :)

[Redpaw]

Dang that Megan is amazing isn't she?, I learned something I didn't even know I needed to know and now I know it.

Mrs.CP I got a whole playground of 20 acres for him to play on, and he could have all he finds. My claim is avalaiable whenever you come this way.

My daughters usually dive into the pools and retrieve at least 1.00 in coins every day from the claim, not counting jewerly and buttons.

I was just thinking ( smell that? ) that a Detector hunt during the rally would be a benefit, to establish a test bed takes nothing more than salting the ground a few weeks before the rally so the ground signature of the coins will increase.

[motorbikemike]

Mrs.cp
How funny, that is a token from my car wash :D Where did you get it? I leave them in geocaches all over the state so maby you got it from one of them. That was cool to see it when it came up on the screen :D Well now you can wash your truck for free.
Mike

[Denise]

:D :D
I was wondering how long it would take for you to notice it.

Toooo Funny!

[motorbikemike]

Dan called me today and razed me about it. I forgot that he stoped by the wash the other day :P I have plenty more where that one came from :D
Talk to you later

[gold_tutor]

Proud Exonumiast Son of Dan/Denise....HOWDY!

Thanks for the back side pix. And thanks for the nice words about my post. It is fun to share in your success.

BTW...do you remember me telling you about the early territorial trading piece called the "oregon beaver?"

We'll it's been replicated--only it's in gold--so I doubt I'll be finding those anywhere but in a retail space rented by the man who makes them for the club I belong to.

However, since you are now into collecting...and maybe collecting by "crittter types," you might want to keep your eye pealed for the copper version of the Oregon Beaver Trader's token.

Here's the gold version of the copper you might be lucky enough to run across one of these days...the copper version is valued at over $15,000 and that's in very scruffy condition...can you imagine what a shiny one like yours would fetch? :o :o :o WHEW!!!

The club is sending me a brochure which shows the really old one this gold one replicates. Pictures of these old exonumiast trade tokens are VERY hard to comeby!

You're lucky to be in a "very old state" as well...who knows what gambling tokens, redlight district keyfobs, etc., you may find with that dandy finder of yours???!!!
Might be interesting to do a little digging around and see if the Denver Mint ever privately minted stuff besides US coins for which you could be on the alert for...

PS...come to think of it, this gold kinda looks like a "rat/mouse" yes? No? Might fit right into to your Exonumia critter collection, huh

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[russau]

at the georgia rally they had two hunts. one cost to enter and the other was a free one......things got goffed up so they returned the money to those that had paid and rolled both into one detector hunt. i found about $2. worth of coins. but the best thing i found that wasnt in the hunt was 5 mini balls in a chuck of rotted wood. it was like someone was target shooting OUR a firing squad!they had lots of donated items for gifts ,and the boyscouts hide the tokens and coins with someone that was very familiar in hiding coins for such hunts. that was my one and only coin hunt contest.