Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-28
FORTUNES PAID FOR PENNIES

a snort time ago a Queen Anne's far
thing, dated 1913, was sold at Christie,s
TOR G2S 10 shillings, says the London
Mall. In View of the fact this the coin
had seemingly AUGMENTED in value to
such an enormous extent it is interestino
to note that had it been invested at
rather less than "a per cent on the dav
IL was issued. and the interest that ac-
cfued had also been invested wear bv
year, the compound interest, Plus the or
lginal capital, would now equal the SIM
the coin has been sold for.
Early in February last a firm of Ameri-
can lawyers offered a reward of $500
about Gl0O) for an American dime. or
lucent piece, whose face value is five
pence. The coin, which accidentally
passed into circulation in December last.
is wanted. and evidently BADLY wanted.
as evidence in an important will case.
Descriptions and Illustrations of the cola
appeared in many newspapers.
rms mysterious coin, which has been
heard of i'll several places, but always
eNades capture, has already had 8 novel
and an exciting melodrama founded upon
IT'S history. If it had been invested upon
the very day 1t was struck, and the inter-
est that accrued had also been invested.
it's owner would have had to purchase
with 1t some security-bearing interest at
the rate OF los per cent per annun to al
NV VI liC liiiNlIdi anu accumulated M
terSst to equal the reward offered.
Another valuable American coin is the
perfect silver dollar tface value about
TOUR Stlliilngs) of 1904, which would have
mad to have been invested at ~ per cent
on the day it was struck to ALLOW of if
and the compound interest to date to
amount to the highest price given for it
at a coin auction-~oamely. 5000. The
cause OF its popularity among collectors
/ lies III the fact that nnlV 10 far SiipiI.c
exist and each has a record of owner
ship.
Ihis national hunt for a particular coin
recalls a similar search mon a LARGE
scale in France, the coin in question be-
ing a tiNe-trane piece. The legend that
VAS the foundation of so much assiduous
search AYERS that Napoleon Bonaparte.
finding that a particular issue of five
franc pieces was hanging fire, let the re-
port be freely circulated that he had
caused an assignment of 100, 900 francs
tG20,0C0) to be concealed in one of the
now coins and had afterward had the coin
reunited in order to make it exactly re-
seinhle its fellows before it was issued to
the public.
AS the search necessitated the splitting
open of the coin and as the value of the
coin when split was but the market value
of it's weight in silver. the pursuit of the
assignment cost the purSuer a consil
cradle sum every time he experimental.
OF expensive pennies there are a large
number. A silver penny of William the
Conquerer's reign sold some time ago for
G32: a Stephen and Matilda penny for
ES3; a Matilda Oxford penny for $50
and a golden penny of the thirteenth
century realized at the famous Montagu
sale no less than c25O.
Blu all these pence sink into signifi-
II when compared to the famous Lee
penny. which suggested Sir Walter
SCOTS "Taiisman." This emblem. con-
sisting of a transparent blood-red colored
stone of trefoil shape, set in an ancient
silver coin, supposed to be a shilling OF
Edward Is time. is an heirloom of the
Lockhart family and was obtained by a
former member of the family from a cap
tive Saracen chief as part of his ransom.
Perha ps, however. the most expensive
coin ever sold was the first of the souve-
mir silver half dollars coined in 1892 at
Philadelphia mint. at the time of the
Columbian exhibition. for which before
it was struck a great typewriter manu-
featuring company bid e2,O00. This at
the time was said to be the highest price
ever paid for any coin, modern or an
tique."