The New Numismatist

Yesterday one of the four pennies I found was from 1957. On closer inspection I noticed a different design on the reverse of this coin. After further research I found out the coin is what is known as a "Wheat Back" in numismatic circles, for the two wheat sheaves as seen in the image shown here.

Up until yesterday I was of the opinion that all pennies were created equal. Today I stand corrected! Wheat back pennies were made from 1909 to 1958 and because of their rarity the price of them can range from three cents right up to $550 a piece according to this article from about.com .

On returning back to Castle Sidewalker I did not put my '57 Wheat Back with the general population of change in the jar on my bed side table. It is now residing in solitary confinement, wrapped in tissue paper, in a high security compound at the Castle (it is like the Pablo Escobar of my coin collection)! The reason for the heightened security being that this little Wheatie of mine may have a resale value of up to three cents, and as they would say on the Antiques Roadshow, for insurance purposes I should probably have it covered for a nickel!

In other news, yesterday a bird mistook me for a washroom and relieved itself on my head. It is not my intention to take this blog down the toilet humor route, but it is not every day you get dumped on by sea gull, so I thought it was worth a mention. This could be taken as a good sign in some quarters, especially if you are in the shampoo business...

OK, moving on, the road trip later this week is now confirmed, so I will roll out clue number two. I have only had one guess so far, which was Boston and it was wrong. Perhaps I should add an incentive to encourage more guesses? Any one care to guess correctly for a 52 year old Wheatie...?

Clue #1: The target is a port city on the Eastern seaboard of the United States.
Clue #2: The target is South of the Mason-Dixon Line.


-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $13.38 (plus pending Starbucks resolution)