The Indianapolis journal., 1902-08-31
A. y. WILSON. or THIS CITY. \ col
LECToR or FOREIGN COINS.
He Il One of Very Few In Indian
npotIs-FooIfsh Fashion OF
Young women.

opened wider than usual when ne behcld
the All Babalike collection OF Oriental
money which tnglcd and glittered before
him Most OF the coins were pieces Of Chi
nese money OF various kinds. although
there were many East Indian. japanese and
other Oriental pieces among them. The
owner OF the collection and the man In the
cage soon agreed upon terms for the trans
action. and the queer-looking coins were
placed I'm the great vault. while the visitor
tucked some crisp Ursited States bills away
IN his inside pocket
money exchange OF this kind Is nov
city I'm city so far away from the sea-
ports as indianapolis. and II is doubtful IL
many similar transactions have ever taken
place here The man that traded the Ori-
entail money for the American currency
was a. y. Wilson. who IS probably better
posted concerning the value OF foreign
money and curious old coins than any one
else IN this city. lie secured the collection
from a man who at one time kept little
secondhand shop on San Franciscos water
front. where he often accepted various
kinds OF foreign money from the sailors In
payment for the goods purchased. For
many years the shop keeper was an enthu-
siastic collector OF coins, but hnally-as IS
the case with many collectors-turned his
attention 20 the boarding OF some other rare
articles and allowed his enthusiasm over
coins TO cool until IL had died out entirely,
and he was willing 20 sell out for about
half what the collection had cost him.
There are very few collectors OF coins In
this city" said Mr. Wilson, in discussing
the matter, because this is not good
field for that sort OF thing when regarded
either as a business or as a fad. 1 am
fond OF trading I'm coins and studying old
and curious pieces Of money. but I've never
tried 10 make much OF a collection. There
Is really a great fascination about the
study OF the worlds money, and 1 have
known men that could talk entertainingly
for hours on the subject OF rare coins.
Whenever 1 run across an odd-looking piece
of money. or one which 1 know 10 be Of
value to the collector for some reason or
other always buy it. If only to have the
pleasure of possessing it for awhile. 1 had
very rare piece of Mexican money several
weeks ago. but 1 offered pretty
good price fer ii l let it go. Many very
rare coins have passed through my hands.
and / sometimes wish that 1 had retained
all of them until I had made a really val
liable collection.
zone should keep sharp lookout for
rare pieces of money. whether interested
or not from a collectors standpoint for
you are likely to come into possession of
valuable coin and let it get away from you
without realizing its worth. Not long ago
one Of the very few 50 gold pieees coined
in 1872 was picked up in a New York money
changers shop. Up to that time it was
thought that there were only two of these
coins in eNistence-one in the Philadelphia
mint and the other in BOston-but now col
lectors believe that there may be two or
three more in circulation somewhere in the
world The man that got hold Of the one
in New York was so delighted that he
bought lot Of other coins which he didn't
want before leaving the shop. He paid
only s. for the gold piece. and has been
offered as much as $500 for it. He expects
TO be offered a thousand before parting
with 1t, and / wouldn't be surprised if he
gets II, too The New York dOubloons,
coined in 1857, are very rare, indeed, and
are worth about $500 each. On one side Of
these curious pieces Of money is a picture
of the sun rising over a mountain, sur
rounded by the legend, Nova Eberaca Co
lumbia Excelsior and below is the name
OF the designer. 'Brashear.' The other
side has the original form Of the national
motto, 'Unum Pluribus.' There is a
heraldic eagle. on one wing of which are
the letters L. B. the designers initials.
1t is hardly likely that you'll chance upon
one Of these coins. but If you do hold on
10 it until you get your own price.
collectors often pay high prices for
coins bearing mint marks which otherwise
would not have been worth more than their
face value. The first United States cents
struck for circulation bear the date 1913;
they are of six varieties, and are valued
by the collectors at $3.50 to S6.25. One Of
the most sought after Of colonial coins is
the Highly copper 1t was struck in 1887
by Samuel Highly. who was a physician
and blacksmith at CRANKY, Conn. He
secured the copper from a nearby mine
and shaped the coin at his own forge
About ten years ago 8 silver shekel was
found in Texas which dates back 10 I42
Is. c. Its intrinsic value is about 80 cents,
but its value TO collectors is 5000. Oh, it
pays TO stumble upon rare coins. and it's
well worth while TO examine any piece of
money that seems to be little out of the
ordinary"
1T has just come under my notice" said
prominent indianapolis physician yester-
day. that many Of the young women of
this city have been doing a very foolish
thing this summer The fashion of wearing
what they call elbow sleeves or sleeves
cut short at the elbows has been respon-
sible Tor this latest nonsense. a young
woman, the daughter OF a friend OF mine.
came into my Office few days ago and
asked me 10 burn the dOwny hair from her
arms. from the elbow down. I was aston
ished. but she was as cool as a cucumber
over the matter. and vOuchsafed the infor-
nation that she was the only girl in her
set that had not had the thing done weeks
ago Il seems that there are numerous ad-
vertisements being printed in the various
magazines which offer stuff for sale which
IS supposed 10 destroy the growth OF hair
on the arms Of the fairer sex After try
ing the various preparations and finding