What's the story?

[Bedrock Bob 4,008]

Found an oddity in the gold fields last week. Does anyone know of coins stamped with the Masonic symbol?

Looks like a punch and die was used that was intended for some other purpose. The stamping is very deep and has deformed the penny. Here is a look at the back side...

[Ant Man 15]

I think it's from outer space.

Or maybe somebody just used it to test during set-up for stamping some sort of Masonic emblems.

Paul

[Bedrock Bob 4,008]

I think it's from outer space. Or maybe somebody just used it to test during set-up for stamping some sort of Masonic emblems. Paul

I bet you are pretty close to correct. How it got wedged in the bedrock in the spot that it was found tells a part of that story too. I believe it was "put back". most of the old timers here are Masons and so were their ancestors. It makes sense they would associate the Masonic symbol in the ritual of "put back".

I had found a dozen nice flatties sandwitched in the deep cracks of an andesite arroyo bottom. I uncovered a favorable uplift of bedrock with a shovel and slid the coil of Frank's old GMT over the rocks and got a target in the most prominent crack where I was certain would produce a nice nugget. There was this coin instead. I knew immediately that some local old timer had specked a nugget there back in his prime.

Just a hunch but it is a special coin in a special spot. I just dont see anyone losing a coin like this and it winding up in the spot that it did.

[Johnno 64]

1/100 of one dollar, same as any other one cent piece.

Years ago, the stamped penny was a popular Masonic souvenir, in some areas it was Representative of a "day's wages" as part of the Fellow Craft Degree, and sometimes it was simply a custom to get a Masonic penny with the same year as you were made a Mason. Copper pennies are soft and easy to stamp, unlike silver or alloy coins of higher value.

Many Masons carried these around in their pockets for years, and eventually got it mixed up with their pocket change and spent it.

[Bedrock Bob 4,008]

Now THAT was a full two cents worth Johnno! I figured that there was a story behind the story. Thanks!

Betcha there was a whopper in that crack. Until the 1980's the nuggets were specked from the bedrock using a small bellows. This area had never been prospected since then and under close guard. I bet some miner left that coin in place of a special nugget and I have a pretty good hunch who that miner may have been.

[Terry Soloman 948]

I think you are on the yellow with your hunch BB. I know a fellow that prospected with my Dad, that put silver Roosevelt dimes in the holes and cracks he worked good gold out of in the Bradshaws, as sort of an offering to appease the Gold Gods for taking so much yellow. His Mother was Yavapai, so I always figured that had something to do with his superstitions. These are the ones I always find..

[~LARGO~ 17]

Hi Bob, You find the most interesting items!

Curious find, you never know what you will find when someone leaves a "token" of their being in a certain place.

Just in case you want to make some of your own, I found this link to ebay, where you can buy a masonic punch setup and make your own! There are also offerings of already stamped coins, just like the one you found.

http://www.ebay.com/...=item484301d153

~LARGO~

[Bedrock Bob 4,008]

Hi Bob, You find the most interesting items! Curious find, you never know what you will find when someone leaves a "token" of their being in a certain place. Just in case you want to make some of your own, I found this link to ebay, where you can buy a masonic punch setup and make your own! There are also offerings of already stamped coins, just like the one you found. http://www.ebay.com/...=item484301d153 ~LARGO~

...Well I'll be damned. Between you and Johnno I have learned more about this coin than I expected!

This just reinforces my idea that I have found what I am looking for. There was a man who found quite a pile of gold in the late 60's early 70's. He was deeply involved with the Masons and wore a huge Masonic ring he made from gold he had found.He was a craftsman, so you could imagine striking a coin would be right up his alley.

He had a "quill" about the size of an alka seltzer bottle about 3/4 full of nuggets as big as half dollars. They stacked up in that bottle like coins and when you tilted it back and forth it seemed like there was a pound of gold in it. He told a story of finding a nugget shining in the gravel while walking through the Animas mountains. In the years to follow he made many trips back to that gulch and had fantastic luck. He had a few claims in the area but his family tells me that he did not find his nuggets on those claims and I believe it.

I stumbled upon a little side gulch that has some big ol' flatties in it and a Masonic penny. Maybe a ghost of the old man too?

[Nugget Shooter 4,614]

Very cool Bob and hope you are onto a good one....