Althouse: "It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner..."

January 29, 2013

"It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner..."

"... declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then found to be the real deal."

Does an object retain the spirit of the dead?

10 comments:

MadisonMan said...: Love how the friendly Family Lawyer offered them a mere $5K for it 10 years ago.; 1/29/13, 7:43 AM
Unknown said...: Humble seems an odd description.; 1/29/13, 7:52 AM
David said...: You got it, Mad Man. Nothing like looking out for your client's interest.; 1/29/13, 8:28 AM
chickelit said...: Who's Minding The Mint?

The buffalo nickel was supposed to have driven those nickels to extinction. The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is like the 1933 $20 gold piece--minted without authority; 1/29/13, 8:37 AM
Larry J said...: Ryan Myers said a family attorney had heard of the famous 1913 Liberty nickels and asked if he could see the Walton. “He looked at it and he told me he’d give me $5,000 for it right there,” he said, declining an offer he could not accept without his siblings’ approval.

There's nothing like trying to screw your clients to reinforce those nasty stereotypes about lawyers. 99% of the lawyers make the rest of them look bad.; 1/29/13, 9:13 AM
edutcher said...: Sounds like the set up for a Sherlock Holmes story.; 1/29/13, 10:09 AM
Cedarford said...: I join MadisonMan and LarryJ. Having read the story, before commenting here, what stood out to me the most in all that fascinating stuff, was the lawyer. Paid thousands to represent the family, What really stood out to me was the scumbag lawyer paid many thousands to advise the family - who - suspecting the family didn't know its true worth, tried legal theft.

They should have named the attorney scum in the story. Likely didn't due to fear to name him - to avoid him making more money suing someone then accepting a settlement to make his defamation suit go away.; 1/29/13, 10:42 AM
Cedarford said...: I join MadisonMan and LarryJ. Having read the story, before commenting here, what stood out to me the most in all that fascinating stuff, was the lawyer. Paid thousands to represent the family, What really stood out to me was the scumbag lawyer paid many thousands to advise the family - who - suspecting the family didn't know its true worth, tried legal theft.

They should have named the attorney scum in the story. Likely didn't due to fear to name him - to avoid him making more money suing someone then accepting a settlement to make his defamation suit go away.; 1/29/13, 10:43 AM
TML said...: "cast"? Aren't coins minted?; 1/29/13, 1:55 PM
Darrell said...: "cast"? Aren't coins minted?

Until until a certain point in time, the "blanks"--the metal disc that would be eventually "struck" imaparting the "image" was cast. The raw blank was turned into a planchet, meaning a raised edge was imparted before it was fed into the press to impart the image.
Heavy punch presses powered by electricity gave other options for producing blanks/planchets in a single pass.; 1/29/13, 3:37 PM