In 1926, Governor Charles Sale of the Hudson’s Bay Company purchased 1,000 recently issued Fort Vancouver half-dollar commemorative coins. The coins were later moved for safekeeping to the Provincial Archives Building in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In 1982, a janitor working there came down with a case of sticky fingers. But he had no idea how… Read more »
There was a time in the Western U.S. when silver dollars were everywhere. And it still seems like anyone with even a modest coin collection has a couple of Morgan silver dollars. But why are silver dollars so abundant? It comes down to the perfect combination of fear, skullduggery and mountains of silver. In 1859, Patrick… Read more »
“In God We Trust.” Regardless of your religious beliefs, this motto is in your home and quite possibly in your pocket right now. These four words have appeared on U.S. money since 1864, when the motto was first engraved on the two-cent coin. But how and why was the phrase added? Origins of the… Read more »
With a slight breeze riffling the water, twelve ships set sail from Havana. Eleven were bound for Spain, loaded with gold and silver. Among them were the flagship Capitana and Urca de Lima. The twelfth ship was the Griffon, a French merchant vessel that had been detained in port. Afraid that word would leak of… Read more »