The
Thrill of
The Hunt
I’m not
bragging or anything, after all “it ain’t braggin’ if it’s true.”
A few months ago I was over in
Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. My son needed to be there for a couple
of days so I tagged along. For some
years now every time I am in that area I stop by a nice little shop near the river. It is a general collector’s shop which
has just about anything in “antiques” that one might want to acquire.
Even though the dealer has some numismatic items
his place isn’t a coin shop,
nor is he listed as one in the Yellow Pages. After digging around this place
for an hour I went to the register with a few good items.
Included in my stack was a nice copy, with dust jacket, of the 1925 edition
of Marvin Hunter’s "Trail Drivers of
Texas"
. I also had an
odd little book about the “new” West that was published in 1885, and a copy of an
ancient looking "History of San Antonio and Bexar County". A few pieces of regional
postal history finished out my newly discovered collection of treasurers.
I was particularly pleased with the Hunter book.
Very few of these survived with the dust jacket intact.
The book itself is moderately scarce, but still easy
to find, if one chooses
to pay the price. There are a number
of later editions which are reasonable.
The most recent reprint came out in 1985.
My stop at the cash register turned out to be
more fruitful than expected. Just on
a whim, I asked the dealer if he had
any currency in stock.
He produced a few common
United States
items and had a handful of common Confederate notes.
He dug a little more and came up with two items I ultimately purchased. The first was a full-size Confederate
Bond complete with coupons. The appeal
to this one was the fact that it was hand issued in 1863 in
Shreveport, Louisiana
by an officer of the “Trans-Mississippi Department.”
The second item was one that caught me off guard.
It was very familiar, but didn’t look quite right.
After focusing on it for a while I realized I was looking at a common
Louisiana
“baby bond". Everybody has one of these,
or more. The difference was in the
fact that this note had all eleven coupons attached.
It was the size of a piece of large
United States
currency. Quite honestly I have been
collecting currency for over twenty years and this is the first one of these I have
ever seen. I even asked Hugh Shull
about it and he admitted that he hadn’t seen one either.
The Criswell currency book noted that these are “rarely found.”
I was delighted to acquire it at a fair price.
As a matter of fact it is going to be in Shull’s upcoming update of Grover
Criswell’s "Confederate and Southern States Currency" book.
Of course we all know that there is still interesting material out there to be duly noted and happily acquired. I know that all of us
are looking for the obscure piece that fills a hole, or adds something to the collection
which gives “braggin’ rights.” A little
serendipity every now and then is in order.
I’ll admit it; part of what I really enjoy about the hobby is the thrill of the
hunt. But, don’t we all.
So, fellow hunter-gatherers, I look forward
to being with you all in a couple of weeks. If you are around and available, come
on to lunch on June 6th. At the least be sure and point yourself in the direction
of Fair Haven United Methodist Church on Thursday, June 15th. You’ll be glad you
did. .
Regards and God Bless,
Richard
