A Quarter That Returned Seven Times in 29 Years

1900

Interesting Travels of a Mutilated Coin

"Have you ever discovered what a small world this is?" said A. J. Flyshaker, the other day to a New York Telegraph reporter. "I have, and I have found that it is impossible to get away from one's self in it.

"You don't think so? Well, I will give you just one instance of it which you would not believe if I could not prove it to you. You see this quarter," and here the speaker displayed a much worn silver piece upon which were stamped the letters "F. L. Y." "Well, this is the story of how even a quarter can't get lost. It was in March, 1871, I stamped those letters on that coin. It was at the time when there was a general howl over the mutilation of money, and the street car lines in Louisville, where I then lived, had instructed their conductors not to receive anything of the sort. Being young, and eager for trouble, I deliberately stamped the word 'Fly,' which was then as now my nickname, upon this quarter, and after a long row forced the conductor to take it and give me change.

"That was twenty-nine years ago, and during that time the coin has returned to me seven different times, the last being in March last, in this city. The last occasion of its return to me was in San Francisco, three years after I had returned from a tour of the world, which wound up with a long stay in Australia. Before that I had seen it in Detroit, New York, Galveston and Denver. How it traveled around I don't know, but I am sure the story of its wanderings would be full of human interest.

"What I want to tell you about, however, is how I came to get it this last time. I had been in the habit of stopping in at McCoy's saloon occasionally for a drink, and I was usually served by John Kennedy, the head bartender. He comes from Troy, and last March, on his 29th birthday, he visited his home there. Before returning he got a bill changed, and among the coin was this quarter. He kept it in his pocket for two or three days after getting back, and thought nothing more about it until I happened in.

"Then he told me he had a coin with 'Fly' on it. He showed it to me, and I recognized it as the one I had stamped in Louisville, just twenty- nine years before. The coin itself was minted in 1857, so it was fourteen years old when I stamped it. By comparing notes with Mr. Kennedy it further developed that I had stamped it in Louisville on the day he was born in Troy. After the coin had been traveling all over the United States for twenty-nine years, it falls into his hands in his native town on his 29th birthday, and he, a casual acquaintance, brings it to New York and returns it to me."