Imagine

Lucky penny
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

I've been trying to think of an appropriate post after all the Sturm und drang of the past two weeks. E's obsession with house hunting? (Fact: you can get good land around here, but the house on it will suck, or you can buy ~ugh~ a site condo). Ben's teething? Tess's sudden wish for Ben to go back to the hospital from whence he came? (Knew that was coming, just didn't know when...or with what vehemence).

The pile of projects from CKU-Detroit? The new project I just bought for National Scrapbooking Day?

Oh yeah, scrapbooking. That hobby on which I can spend NO money this month. Except for the call I received from the Zone today, with an opening for their $20 crop next Friday, and Mega Meet that Saturday, I can be good. Oh, crap, and stamp club the second Monday of the month (minimum order of $25). Oh well. Good thing I have all those projects to finish from CKU.

Then I went to get change for a tip on my (free, BTW, I've had 9 punchies on my Bear Claw Coffee card for well over a month now, and decided my "crafter's diet" month was as good a time as any to use my freebie) iced mocha and found in the change I just received at the post office, this lovely 1905 penny.

Didn't know I was one of those freaky penny collectors now, did you? Yup, I have wheat pennies spanning the 1920s through 1959, when they were replaced by the Lincoln profile (all worth...probably a penny each). I have a strange penny from 1943 that is definitely NOT copper; they were obviously saving that for the war effort (so I have no idea what this strange grey metal is). I have an Indian-head nickel from 1934 and a buffalo-head one from 1935.

But this coin really got my blood pumping. At first I thought it was a Canadian coin (the ladylike-looking Indian-head reminded me of Queen Elizabeth's profile). Those dang Canadians got me once when I was about 10 years old and found one of their pennies half-buried in the sand -- all that was showing was "1867." Thought I'd die but then I pulled it out and it was a centennial penny ("-1967" was the buried part).

I showed it to the barista at the drive-through Bear Claw where I stopped after getting Tess to school (trying to get cranky Ben to sleep...it worked...for the duration of the car ride, at least). I hope she wasn't thinking I was going to give it to her (hey, I was tipping her on a FREE coffee, wasn't that enough?)...

I love thinking of the things a coin like this could have bought when it was new. What really freaks me out is, this penny was in circulation before any of my grandparents (except one) were born (my maternal grandfather -- my biological one -- was born in 1896...like F. Scott Fitzgerald).

Sure, a 1929 penny could have bought a kid a lot of candy (now you'd be lucky to get a couple of M&Ms for that amount). It could pay for postage on a postcard, that's for sure. But considering that you could open an account at the new Dime Savings Bank Building in 1910 for just a dime, I can't even begin to think what riches a 1905 penny would have brought its owner.

Nice to see it's worth more than a penny, maybe more than a dollar, if I get it properly cleaned.

Yeah, I'm a coin geek. At least it gave me a chance to change the subject.