GET REALE

rough draft – unedited – unfinished

I spent very little time at Rotary Park over the Fourth of July, finding it much quieter, cooler, and safer in my garage. My wife and I did go down for an hour on the third, watching a fellow scuba dive with a metal detector along the shore. Afterwards, he took off his scuba gear and did a little dry sand searching.

Joleen and I have done our share of metal detecting over the years, finding loose change in various areas of town, including WWII 50-caliber bullets and brass cartridges in Standard Wash. We finally ended up with enough change for a raspberry mocha at The Human Bean and found enough lead and brass to fill a toolbox drawer.

I’ve been a coin collector going way back. My grandfather got my brother and I hooked by giving us a couple of real silver dollars. From that point on we were on our own.

In Lubbock, Texas, Jim and I would buy ten rolls of pennies at a bank and go through them looking for wheat pennies, always hoping we’d end up with an Indian head. That never happened and we went through several hundred rolls. I did find one in the backseat of an old car at a wrecking yard in Texas, giving it to a friend, who’s dad owned the salvage yard.

My brother-in-law discovered an 1899 Indian head penny stuck inside an antique door lock on their old farmhouse in Kansas. Some kid evidently slipped it into the large keyhole years ago, with the coin dropping to the bottom and there it sat for almost one hundred years.

In a Hardy Boys mystery series book I read years ago, there was mention of Pine Tree shillings and pieces of eight being uncovered by Frank and Joe Hardy. I have an authentic piece of eight, but the Pine Tree shilling is a replica that I purchased. An original Massachusetts Pine tree shilling is quite rare and expensive.

Before the United States mint started producing coins, residents used Spanish “Reale” coins. A whole, one ounce, silver Reale was worth one dollar, yet if it was cut eight equal parts, each “piece of eight,” one bit was worth twelve and a half cents. It took eight bits back then to equal a dollar. This value remained in effect up until 1963, when bulk silver finally traded for over one dollar an ounce. At that point a bit increased along with it.

The American colonies produced their own coinage early on, before the US mint started producing silver dollars and lesser denominations made of pure silver in 1796, ceasing production in 1935, this when the “Gold Act” was enacted. I’ve been able to score a Liberty Bust 1799 silver dollar, but never one of the first minted dollars as they’re quite spendy.

My old East Anchorage Highschool cheer, “Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar, all for East High stand up and holler!” no longer holds water, even in 1972, with silver worth over two dollars an ounce the latter part of that year. When I graduated, two bits of silver was worth precisely fifty cents if a person wants to count brass tacks.

This catchy slogan was first used in the 1700s, when two bits was worth twenty-five cents. With silver now hovering around twenty-three dollars an ounce, one bit is equal to approximately two dollars and nineteen cents, with two bits double that amount. Some misinformed folks still believe that two bits of silver is only worth a quarter. Those that do are living in the past and I’ll take all the bits have for that price.

In 1965, pure silver coins were eliminated from circulation in the US, and replaced with what is called clad coins. These bi-metal coins have less valuable materials inside such as copper and nickel. Those are the type coins Joleen and I always find. I call it junk money, because there’s limited value where precious metal is concerned, yet it still buys a good cup of coffee.

Before I depart this life I’d love to have a real Pine Tree shilling. It’s doubtful I’ll find a bag of them like the fictitious Hardy Boys did, so the replica I purchased for four bits will have to suffice. When I say four bits here, I’m not talking fifty cents. I paid a little under twelve bucks for it. Chalk this increase in the value of silver bits up to inflation.

If they want to be totally accurate, students attending high school these days should be singing out at pep rally’s and games: Two bits, four bits, six bits, twenty-three dollars, all for (fill in the blank with your school)________ stand up and holler.