Small-town, 1920, nickels.

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villa66
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Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:26

A few weeks ago I saw an old photo in a small-town historical periodical. The town—nearby, but not my own—got its start as a railroad town and remained so until the mid-1960s or thereabouts. The old photograph was from 1920, and immediately put me in mind of this coin:
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:28

In 1920 the United States was still riding the crest of a postwar prosperity, but it was—truly—the crest, and the economy would soon sharply fall. In prosperous 1920, however, the mint in Philadelphia struck more than 63 million 5-cent pieces, and the two branch mints at Denver and San Francisco produced another 19 million 5-cent nickels.

To give those numbers a little context, the 5-cent nickel had been introduced in 1866, and up through 1920, only in 1916—as wartime demand accelerated—had more nickels been coined in a year. (Then as the wave broke, and the country went into recession, production of the 5-cent piece plunged from 82.2 million in 1920 to only about 12.2 million in 1921.)

When I went looking for my 1920 nickel, I was surprised to find I had kept two other 1920 nickels as curiosities—and reminders that in high-production years there are often coins that slip by the quality control folks:
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:30

Above, the two obverses, and below, the missing “C” of “CENTS,” and the missing “VE” of “FIVE.”
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:31

The missing letters in the two coins above are likely the result of grease-filled dies, and have little if any extra value. But they’re of interest to me, because they’re the same sort of error that caused the 1922-plain Lincoln cents (which, even well worn, are easily $700 or $800 coins). Just amazing how circumstances combine to make one coin famous and in demand, and another coin…well, just another coin.

And now, that old photograph that started this:
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:33

And a particular part of that old photo:
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:36

Peeking out from behind the one building is a large advertising sign painted on the wall of another. Coca-Cola. (In only its 34th year…) “Relieves fatigue,” went the old advertising copy, “Sold everywhere,” and then the price: :
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:39

Or perhaps one of these, which circulated into the 1950s:
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:41

Or perhaps even one of these, which circulated into the 1930s:
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:44

Coke would make its way around the world, of course, and I guess many hundreds of the world’s coin types have been spent for bottles and cans and cases—and glasses(!) of Coke over the years.

But you might take one more look at the sign, because it isn’t just Coca-Cola of interest here.
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » Sa 02.08.14 07:46

Culture is traveling in more than one direction here. Above the soft drink sign is something else that was relatively new in America in 1920: spaghetti!, (as popularized in the United States by European immigrants, mostly from southern Italia.)

And so here it is, spaghetti, making its way through the American Midwest, just about 50 miles (80km) from what had become Oklahoma in 1907, but which before that had still been officially known by the abbreviation of “I.T.,” that is, “Indian Territory.”

:) v.

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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von Mynter » So 17.08.14 11:39

Thanks for sharing your thoughts around a 5 cent nickel with us. That was really fun to read.
Grüsse, Mynter

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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » So 24.08.14 07:02

Thanks for the kind words. And maybe I can risk abusing everyone's patience with just one more piece of that 1920 photo:
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » So 24.08.14 07:07

On the street of this 1920 photo of a railroad town in the American Midwest is a sign advertising “Rooms” for what appears to be 35¢ per night. The most convenient coin-combination to lay on the countertop:
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » So 24.08.14 07:11

I note the dime is from Philadelphia and the quarter-dollar is in town from all the way across the country in San Francisco (appropriate enough, because the railroad line, just one city block from the street in this picture, was the St. Louis—San Francisco, commonly called the “Frisco.”)

Or the thirty-five cents for a room could have been made with Barber coins, of course. Only recently (1916) had their production ended, and they would circulate until the late ‘40s or early ‘50s.
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Re: Small-town, 1920, nickels.

Beitrag von villa66 » So 24.08.14 07:14

The dime is another Philadelphia product, not surprising because at the time, the mother-mint dominated coin production—especially where minor coins were the concern. The quarter-dollar is a final-year Barber from Denver, which had begun coining operations in 1906 and would—during the 1950s—begin to overtake Philadelphia as the facility striking the most American coinage.

But there was yet one more set of this most convenient coin-combination that could be used to rent that 35-cent room:
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