Pennies from Poland

I paid 5 zloty to attend an antique sale on the Rynek Maly on a recent Saturday. I have been looking to purchase a piece of Polish history so that I can have more than memories of my experience here. I have been thinking about an old map or book so thought the antique sale would be a good place to look. What I found was something different. Pennies. A box of U.S. Wheat Pennies all of which are older than me.

I have collected coins longer than I can remember. It probably started when my grandfather Walter Issing gave me an 1897 coin from El Salvador. That led to me acquiring almost 100 foreign coins from over 50 countries outside of North America.

But this box intrigued me as its oldest coins were from 1917 and there were two of them from that year. At home I have a set of those cardboard tri-fold coin folders used for storing Lincoln pennies. The pennies I need to complete the set are the early years. So this box held out the chance that it might allow me to finish my collection in one fell swoop.

When I first approached the man and asked “Ile” (how much?) he replied 300 zloty. That was way too expensive for what amounted to 104 pennies, and I told him so. So I left for a while then returned to explore the box some more. I asked if I could buy selected coins and he said “Nie”. But he did reduce his price a bit. So I milled about some more and he said “let me count them for you”. (I now knew that he spoke English.) As it turned out he had lived in Chicago (of course) and Groton, Connecticut (of all places.) So he told me about his life and I showed great interest. All the while I was looking through his extensive menagerie of Americana. That’s pretty much what this guy had – American trinkets. After 30 minutes of me coming and going he dropped his price to a final 140 zloty, threw in a Polish coin and I said “sold”.

I know that I probably paid too much for the 104 coins in that box. But I look at it as a chance to repatriate some coins that belong back where they were minted, the good old U.S. of A.

I am still in search of a piece of Polish history and am off to a flea market next week where an old guy sells Polish cameras.

Stay tuned.