Coins will be displayed at the Osgood Historical Museum

If you’ve got an interest in coins, Carl Moore of Osgood is your man!

He has collected coins for several years and has a vast knowledge of where each one was made, why, and what it was made from, whether it be nickel, gold, silver, etc.

Moore will be at the Osgood Historical Museum, 128 S. Buckeye St., Osgood this Friday, July 10 from 2-5 p.m. and Saturday, July 11 from noon to 4 p.m. There he will not only have his coins on display but invites the public to bring up to five coins they would like to have evaluated. “I’m not an expert, but I have lots of information and references about coins,” he told The Versailles Republican.

Conducting programs in all surround cities in their libraries and right here in Ripley County, Moore can tell a lot about a coin at first glance. “I have a lot of coins people may not know exist,” he said. For example, did you know pennies made in 1848 were as big as a quarter in size? There was also the two-cent piece in the Civil War that was the first coin to carry “In God We Trust”. There was also a half-cent.

How about a half dime made in 1851. Not a nickel, but a half dime. Then, he talked about a three-cent silver piece and a 20-cent piece made in 1875, which was so close to looking like a quarter they discontinued it after a short time.

There’s the Shield nickel, “V” nickel, Buffalo nickel, and silver nickel just to name a few.

Back to ancient times, Moore has Roman Denarius, King Herod, Nero and Alexander the Great coins. He also has something in paper money called the Horse Blanket, which was bigger than a dollar bill in size.

You can see his coin collection and talk to the coin collector himself at the Osgood Historical Museum where the first 10 people will receive a unique penny made from a shell casing from WWII. He noted that after the war our country melted down shell casings and made money! He has a few of those he’s willing to part with.

Also, everyone who comes in for those two days he’s at the museum will be entered into a drawing for a Kennedy half dollar. It was interesting to find out Moore had served in the Army at the time when President Kennedy was assassinated, working in the Pentagon.

Moore has knowledge of our country’s beginnings and noted that it was about 15 years before the first coin was minted when our country was first formed due to the lack of gold and silver. He said the original gold came from southern states. During the first years the 13 colonies mostly used pennies, which might seem ironic to some as pennies are now being phased out.

Come to see the coins and look around at all that the museum has to offer. Moore said they have plans to expand to a bigger building and when you see everything that has been collected you will see the reasoning behind the bigger space.

As our country celebrates 250 years, take a little time to discover what it was like many years ago.