1959 • La Habra ~ I had the two coin collections Larry gave me when I lived in San Jose with Mom. The Album for 20th Century COINS of the WORLD was a large, green, four-paneled book with plastic strips sliding over 144 holes which held the coins in place. I had forty-seven holes filled with coins from Australia, Canada, Haiti, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Panama, and Peru. I also had coins from British North Borneo, the Irish Free State, Malaya, Monaco, Morocco, Palestine, the Republic of Guadeloupe, and Siam. Most of the coins were already in it when Larry gave it to me, and he gave me new ones from his later travels.
My Lincoln Penny Coin Album, dated from 1909 to 1960, was easier to fill. I was ten, and Bobby (Betty’s little brother-in-law), was twelve. Sitting on my bedroom floor with the penny book open on my bed, poring over it with Bobby, I noticed my Lincoln 1954 plain was missing, the empty red hole on that page staring out at me. I was confused at first and thought maybe it had rolled under the bed or caught in the metal lip of the mattress frame. Bobby knew it was a hard-to-find penny. He mentioned it was one he didn’t have in his collection.
a younger Bobby Duchi
I asked him if he’d seen it.
He helped me look.
My heart sank. I knew it was only a penny, but it was one of my best coins, and now it was an empty red hole.
For years, and I mean years, every time I’d be on the phone with Betty and she’d mention Bobby, I’d end our conversation with, “and tell that little sonofabitch I want my 1954 plain back!”
to be continued…
© 2018. Catherine Sevenau.
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