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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 11, 1955)
Sunday, December 11, 1955 o Panama Ideal Spot to Find U. S. Gold Coins O o SIXTEEN MEDFOP.D (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Cj Buried treasure j o fro One of the most logical places In which to find American gold coins is Panama. The reason is that so many thousands of those who came to California during the Cold Rush days, or returned to tf?e East then, used the route across the Isthmus. Mindful of that, a friend of mine who spent some time re cently in the back country of Panama, kept a watch for Amer ican coins. He found one, furthermore, and it happened to be an excel lent example of the0 first coin minted in California. The piece, which he bought from a native for 25 silver dol lars, is a $5 gold piece minted by the firm of Norris, Grieg and Norris, in 1849. On the obverse side, it reads around the edge CALIFORNIA GOLD WITHOUT ALLOY. In D the center is an eagle with a shield on its breast containing a 5. On the reverse side is a circle of stars surrounded by the words FULL WEIGHT OF and HALF EAGLE. Within the cir cle is the date 1849. Above it are the initials of the firm and below appears the words SAN FRANCISCO. When I first saw the coin, which was in very good condi tion by the way, I was sure my friend had made one of the more important numismatic finds of the past several years. Not so, however. Though the coin is one of the first issue to be minted in California, it is catalogued at only $125, wheth er with milled edge, or plain as his has. But in this case, as in many others, the catalogue price is ac tually too low. When the owner decided to sell, he had no diffi culty getting $150 for it, and if he had taken his time , about selling it, I am sure he would have done much better than that. ALL JOHN GOULD FIRST EDITIONS ARE VALUABLE Jack and his wife were get ting ready to move into a new home, and they asked me to take a look at some of the stuff they were going to dispose .of. Among the odds and ends were some 200 old books. Noth n ing of any consequence, that I could see until suddenly I spot ted a large volume with an im posing title that began "Mono graph of the Trochilidae." Trochilidae is Latin for hum mingbird. I opened the book, curious as to why anyone should feel moved to give me a monograph on hummingbirds. Instantly my curiosity changed to awe. The book was full of colored plates describing the tiny, jeweled birds. There were 360 of them in all. "LooiR here, Jack," I said. "I can't accept this. These things are valuable." He laughed, insisting I take them. They couldn't have much of a value, he said, because they had been lying around the t tic for at least 20 years and no one had ever expressed a wish for them. After a few minutes of argu ment, I went down to the car to get my book of auction records. Sure enough, the volume Jack had tried to give me was valuable, all right. Far more so than I had realized. It was the first edition of John Gould's fa mous monograph, published in 11 parts over the years 1849-61 in London, and his grandfather had had them bound together. Value of the work was well in excess of $1,500. Jack was delighted when I told him, and when he found that he could dispose of it at any time for $1,800, he was even more delighted. Incidentally, many of the oth er works of Gould are owned in the United States, and all of thm, without exception, are valuable. DERRINGER-TYPE PISTOL AS ACCURATE AS WHEN NEW Larry nodded towards a sil houette target at the far end of the room and pulled a string. There was a roar and a cloud of smoke, and a tiny hole appear ed in the silhouette. ' The gun's okay," Larry said, going forward to the table and loosening a vise that held the weapon. "I took so much rust out of both the barrel and the swivel mount that I was afraid the piece might blow up." It was certainly a deadly looking little thing when I snapped the barrel, which swung to the side on a swivel, back into place. Its over-all length was only 4V2 inches, of which 2V2 inches were in the barrel itself. The piece was of the pocket derringer type. It fired a .41 caliber, rim fire shell. Stamped along the top of the barrell was the word "Southerner." "The only thing southern about it is the name," said Larry, taking the gun back. "It was madCby the Brown Manu facturing Company, of New buryport, (Mass.), back in the early 1870's," he continued, turning the piece over and pointing to an inscription stamped in the metal. "It's pretty rare," he went on. "Even with a rusty barrel and swivel mechanism, ' the thing cost me $25 and I was mighty lucky to get it at ' that.' But it sure doesn't shoot bad. Look!" Larry pointed to the bullet hole in the silhouette and span ned the distance . between it and a nearby pencil mark on which the gun had been sighted in. ' It s only three inches off in 25 feet, which means its prac tically as "good as new," he said. "Are you becoming a collec tor?" I asked. "Not me." he replied. "But I know a fellow who collects der ringers, and he's already agreed to pay me $150 for one of these southerners,' if I can bring him one in good working order." (Released by McClure Newspaper Syndicate 4-H Achievement Program Held at Shady Cove School The Shady Cove, Upper Rogue, Rogue Elk and Trail 4-H achieve ment program was held Thurs day at the Shady Cove school. A dinner for club members and guests was sponsored by the Shady Cove Rotary club. Pins and cards indicating the number of years of 4-H work members had completed were awarded by Gene McCurley, ag ricultural . field representative for the First National bank oi Portland, Medford branch. First Year Pins 0 First year pins were awarded to Susan Chubb, John Cox, Mary ann Elrod, Linda Eccleston, Ma rion Flowers, Sue Harmon, Judy LeeKey, Mary Delilah LeeKey, Frederick Martin, Laura Otis an Suzanne Stuart. Those receiving second year cards were Shirley Abernathy, Nancy Blackman, Jacqueline Hume, Josephine Hume, Kath leen Houston, Judy Mason, Toni Miller and Letha Zerbee; third year pins, Janet Blackman, Ira Conner, Pat Goode, Joan Hous ton, Sharon Roberts and Loretta Rone; fourth year card, Delberta Spain; fifth year pin, Robert Peile; seventh year cards, Veima Peile; eighth year card, Henry Conner; tenth year sin, Edward Peile. 0 2 111 N.4 mm I site DIDN'T NEED IT Myrna Hansen, making her TV debut with George Burns and Grade Allen, claims her two years in Hollywood has improved her figure. Rounding out now at 38-25-35, she says she has added an inch to her bust and weighs two pounds less than when she was Miss UJSLA. 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