For a country keen on recognizing its 250th anniversary, it’s interesting to consider some significant sites that, over the years, have been disregarded or even forgotten. Case in point, Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC, where Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. I visited there years ago and marveled at the Presidential Box in which Lincoln sat to watch the play Our American Cousin before being assassinated.
I stared at the box bedecked with patriotic bunting. It seemed frozen in time. Or not. I learned the theater had sadly been gutted and turned into an office building shortly after the shooting. The majestic box we now see there is a reproduction built in 1968....
In fairness, we’re not alone, I also once stood in downtown Warsaw, Poland surrounded by colorful old buildings and shops dating to the 1400s. I was initially captivated. Then, I realized Hitler had literally leveled and obliterated the entire city. No building there was older than 50 years.
On a trip to Ireland, I was able to visit Durty Nelly’s pub in Shannon, across the street from Bunratty Castle. I was excited to be having a drink in a place first established in 1620. Later, I learned of Sean’s Bar in Athlone, about a half hour away. Sean’s Bar served its first customer in 900AD and is still doing so today. In the US, I’m not sure we even have a rock that old.
Insofar as collector value, it’s critical to understand that facsimile or recreations rarely have value. Often, it can be the opposite. For instance, stamp collectors know of a prized set of stamps issued in 1893 for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Known as “the Columbians,” in prime, unused condition, examples can be worth between $500 and $10,000 depending on the denomination.
In 1992, the USPS decided to reissue those stamps for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage. A wealthy collector I knew went to the site of the reissue to get First Day of Issue cancels on the new stamps. He also took a set of the very valuable originals from 1893. He took those rare and valuable original stamps and foolishly affixed them to envelopes alongside the new ones. He then had them all canceled. Were they rare? I suppose. No one else had anything similar. That didn’t matter. He had ruined the original stamps. The vintage stamps he owned had been destroyed with the contemporary cancel applied. Their value immediately plummeted.
It could be similar to, for instance, the actual 1934 car famed mobsters Bonnie and Clyde Barrow were gunned down in. That car is on display at Whiskey Pete’s Hotel and Casino in Primm, Nevada. Its value is estimated to be well north of one million dollars.
But, what if someone were lucky enough to own an identical 1934 Ford Model 40 B V-8 Flathead Fordor Deluxe? Such a car today would be worth between $20,000 and $50,000 in prime condition. If someone wanted to duplicate the Bonnie and Clyde car, I suppose they could riddle the vehicle with 112 bullets to look just like the famous mobster car in Nevada. It would appear the same, but, of course, be merely a replica. Its value would be next to nothing. The bottom line, don’t mess with the original.
Recently, a rare silver eight-reale coin (Piece of Eight) from the 1500s turned up in the foundation of a church site in Spain. That coin confirmed the location of a lost Spanish settlement. It also underscored the belief of many early settlers in the US and abroad that burying a coin beneath the threshold of a structure assured good fortune and future wealth.
That faith included the early Pilgrims in America. Sometimes, on the frame of the front door, Pilgrims would nail a colonial sixpence or similar coin. The hope was it would afford them both luck and financial success.
Naturally, to nail a coin to a door or doorframe requires driving a nail through the coin. In the 1600s, nails were handmade by blacksmiths. Most such nails had squared sides so the hole in the coin might also be square. To find and own such a rare coin would be exceptional. The value would also be substantial. Of course, it would also need to somehow be proven authentic. Otherwise, someone could simply drive a square nail through an old sixpence and claim it to be from a Pilgrim home.
The point is simple. For valuable collectibles, authenticity and provenance are vital. Similarly, replicas almost never carry significant value. Consider it a word to the wise.
Incidentally, let’s not forget a longstanding wedding tradition:
Something old, something new;
Something borrowed, something blue;
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.
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