After resurrecting his coin collection from the closet, Milton Friesen’s wife coaxed him into attending the 2023 Edmonton Coin Show at the Central Lions Centre.
review and photos by Milton Friesen
September 30 2023
I had given up on my coin collection. In my adolescence, one of my dad’s friends had given me some early Canadian coins featuring King George V. He had told me how even pennies could be worth thousands of dollars – such as the 1936 Dot Cent. All it took to be valuable was a date and a tiny dot.
My imagination had been ignited as we barely had two pennies to rub together. We did, however, have an old, dented can we called the ‘penny tin.’ Mostly, my father and I used the coins it held as checker pieces. But the day after I heard about the Dot Cent, I dumped the coins on the floor and arranged them by date – looking for one stamped ‘1936.’
My father and I never found a Dot Cent, and I abandoned my coin collection in a shoebox. The fruitless search for a rare specimen among common currency had grown old. It was obvious to me that I’d never find a treasure hidden in a box of loose change.
But my wife, Chynna, a student of archaeology, views coins differently. To her, the shiny, untouched, and rare ones are not the most valuable. She wants the ones with a story to tell, the ones that were used to buy food at the market, to pay soldiers for war, or to tithe at a temple.
So, on Sunday, September 17, we went together to the Coin Show, looking to complete the gaps in our penny album. Over 40 vendors from all over Canada had tables set up in the Central Lions Centre from 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM on both days of the weekend, making it Canada’s largest coin show. This event is hosted twice per year by the Edmonton Numismatic Society, with the next shows scheduled in the same location in March 2024. Admission was a reasonable $5 for adults, and free for youths under 16.
After entering the venue, we were quickly informed that what we were looking for was not technically ‘pennies’ but ‘1-cent’ pieces. ‘Penny’ was terminology given to British coins and had been adopted as slang. Whatever. I’m sure ‘loonie’ for a 1-dollar coin is even more egregious.
The owner of Loose Change, Lorrie Whitrow, had many of the 1-cent coins we were looking for. He handed us coins in clear cardboard holders and demonstrated how to grade them with a magnifying glass. After we had purchased several pennies for about a dollar each, we digressed to looking at King George V nickels. As Chynna turned over the obverse (heads) of a 1928 5-cent piece, Lorrie asked: “Do you know the secret with George?”
“That if you look at him long enough, you’ll fall in love?” Chynna quipped.
He laughed. “If you look at his sideburns you’ll fall in love. They are hard to see, but the grade is at least Very Fine if they are there.”
Love for a coin seemed a bit silly to me, but I had to admit the detailed relief on the coin was impressive.
Lorrie pointed out another nickel in his collection, one with a Torch and V Design inspired by Churchill’s famous gesture. This was minted during the WWII years of 1943 – 1945. On the rim of the reverse (tails side), there was Morse code instead of denticles, with a message inscribed: “We Win When We Work Willingly.” The coin that Lorrie had was in shiny mint condition and priced at $70.
Being a WWII aficionado, I thought the inscription was striking, but I wasn’t feeling any great urge to open my wallet.
I wasn’t alone in feeling broke. A group of young kids were doing a challenge in which they hoped to trade items for something of higher value. They stopped by several of the vendors, asking what they would give them in exchange for their items. They seemed hard pressed to be making any headway trading against the professionals, but they had huge smiles and were having fun.
While Chynna rifled through more books of 1-cent pieces, discovering that the 1922-1926 ones are worth at least $50, I came across one of the most remarkable items at the Coin Show. In fact, it was a set, split between two different vendors. Each had a 1935 French-Canadian $25 bill, with the serial number “F002525.” These were part of a series produced between 1935 – 1937, where Canada printed two versions of legal tender – one in French and one in English. I wondered if one of the bills was counterfeit but was given the explanation that they were both cut from the same sheet of paper on the printing press. Each sheet from the press contained four bills, all sharing the same serial number, with small letters ‘A’ through ‘D’ used to distinguish them. The notes at the show were stamped with ‘C’ and ‘D’. Both were available for purchase – one for $9000 from Classic Cash and the other for $7500 from G. Bell Auctions.
Our final stop was Wayne Hansen’s display of Ancient Greek coins, separated into one panel showcasing the Greek gods and another for the goddesses. The display was excellent, and Wayne narrated the history of Lycian and Macedonian coinage.
“What got you started in coin collecting?” I asked.
Many years ago, he told me, when he had not known any better, he purchased an imitation ancient Greek coin while on holiday in Europe. He realized later it wasn’t authentic, but it captivated his imagination and got him involved in the numismatic community.
The anecdote resonated with me. What was valuable to me was no longer the shiny rare coin, it was the intriguing stories, a friendly community, and the chance to put together a collection that showcased that.
We left with our new acquired pennies, and I decided to call my father.
2023 Edmonton Coin Show
Central Lions Centre, Edmonton
Saturday/Sunday September 16/17 2023
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