Like many of you, I've been doing it for years, although on a very small scale. My paper collection includes old two-dollar bills, silver certificates, etc. On the other hand, I have lots of old coins: silver dollars, fifty-cent pieces, etc. I also hoard wheat pennies (why, I don't know), as well as any nickels, dimes, etc. older than 1970, especially those with significant dates on them, like 1944, 1959 (the year I was born), etc.
When I worked on the west side of Cleveland, I used to make a daily stop at a mom-and-pop convenient store (not unlike the one owned by Apu on The Simpsons. I used to get some really old coins there as change, including a penny from the 1800s. It was as if someone just spent their whole vintage coin collection to buy a bag of Cheese Doodles.
But alas! As we slowly transition to a cashless society, one of the drawbacks is that we will gradually lose that occasional thrill of encountering an old coin or wrinkled, faded bill.
That is, unless you happen to spend a lot of time poking around old records in the archives of Lorain County (like author and longtime blog contributor Don Hilton). Then you might get lucky, like Chief Deputy John Hritsko at the Probate Court office in Elyria, as told in the story below that appeared in the Lorain Journal on April 7, 1955.
Interesting stuff, Dan; I wonder if they ever got it straightened out.
ReplyDeleteHey! No fair!!
ReplyDeleteI never found any dough when digging through old records, even though there's plenty of treasure to be found. It's good to know when those records were microfilmed since I've used them plenty, especially the marriage licenses. The old sandstone courthouse was bursting at the seams at this point in time and would continue to grow much worse until 2004, nearly 50 more years!
Judge Ewing was quite a guy. Born in1906. Raised in Willard, Ohio. Passed the bar in 1931. Enlisted in the army in 1944 (38 yo) and served as a forward artillery observer in the Pacific ("where everyone was shooting at him"). A very successful Lorain County assistant prosecutor after that. Won election to the probate bench in 1955. Established the Lorain County Metropolitan Park Commission in 1958, the same year he opened the county's first juvenile detention center on Murray Ridge. He was known throughout the U.S. as an advocate for fairness in laws dealing with the mentally disabled or ill.
His wife, Mabel Lawler Ewing was a teacher, musician and a driving force in the founding and development of Lorain County Community College, among many other things.
Not bad for a couple of 1928 Oberlin College Grads.
(WARNING: Shameless plug incoming) If you're interested in such things, I've literally "written the book" on Lorain County Judges (and the judges' oh-ficial biographies at request of the courts - they're posted in the Justice Center). You can find my work at https://www.dhiltonbooks.net/ - look at the second row down for the history stuff.
As a side note, there is a slight chance the paper records still exist. Many such things ended up the county's retention center.
https://www.loraincountyohio.gov/307/Records-Retention-Center
As a kid I used to collect old coins, and still look through any change for silver coins (pre 1965 mintage) however they are rarely found in circulation anymore. Over our history the U.S. has issued many unusual coins. The 1800s included the following coins in circulation at various times. These included Half cents, two cent pieces ( the first coins with "In God We Trust on U.S. coinage), three cent pieces, half dimes, twenty cent pieces, as well as larger denomination gold coins. Let me know if you run across any of thes coins in your change --- lol.
ReplyDeleteRecently I have been spending some older $20 dollar bills.And alot of the kids of today have never seen an older bill.But I'm talking these bills are from around 1990-1995,they're not really old,but old enough to where the kids of today think they are fake bills.I've had kids refuse to take them or they would get the store manager involved to inspect the bill.But all of my bills have the security strip inside of them and I got them from the bank,so I assure the kids that they are real.It's a sad world when people don't know what real USA money is.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what ever happened to those bills….
ReplyDelete