Free Silver dollars in 1902 Danville, VA

[jeff of pa]

I Wonder how many ended up lost when the kids ran off to Play.

Richmond dispatch. (Richmond, Va.), 27 Dec. 1902.



Richmond dispatch. (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, December 27, 1902, Page 6, Image 6 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

 

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[jeff of pa]

The times. (Richmond, Va.), 27 Dec. 1902.



The times. (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, December 27, 1902, Page 6, Image 6 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

 

[Gold Maven]

Some could be lost, but I'm guessing a child working in a cotton mill learns the value of a dollar quite quickly.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I was a "lint head", worked my way through high school in the cotton mills in Eden, NC. That's why I joined the danged army! Free education, and out of the mills. Eden is 1/2 hour to 45 minutes from Danville. Dan River Mills took the place of Riverside Mills, and about all of those mills are shuttered now, as many as a million cotton mill workers nationwide displaced by foreign trade.

And yes, making $1.25 an hour in '65, a silver dollar "bonus" would have made a very nice gift.

 

[franklin]

I Wonder how many ended up lost when the kids ran off to Play.

Richmond dispatch. (Richmond, Va.), 27 Dec. 1902.

View attachment 1355954

Richmond dispatch. (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, December 27, 1902, Page 6, Image 6 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

Great article Jeff. I believe several textile plants as well as other plants such as modular homes gave away silver dollars at Christmas time. National Homes here in Martinsville, Va before they went out of business in the 1960's gave each employee a silver dollar. Most would get drunk before getting off work. Some threw their silver dollars across a branch near there. (At least that is what I heard. I have looked for the silver dollars a few times. Then they built a new Wal-Marts and a shopping mall along with a Lowe's Building in that area. When you go south on US 220 business across a bridge before you get to the Wal-Mart turn off to the right if you look down towards Jones Creek I believe it is --------you can still see parking spaces marked off where the National Homes employees parked. There may be a few silver dollars still there but they may be 50 or 60 feet under the new road entering Wal-Marts.

Another good location for silver dollars is the old shanty towns of coal mines especially the ones during the 1950's and 1960's as the coal mines paid off in silver dollars. I forgot how much my father was paid working in the mines but it was something like 62 and 1/2 cents an hour or so much a ton. I remember once he came home and gave my mother 62 silver dollars to put away. I was only five years old, I remember my mother hiding them behind the wall paper on a cross 2 x 4 in the wall. My dad wanted the silver dollars one day and mother could not remember where she put them. Later we moved from there and I had forgotten all about the silver dollars. One day a man that was born and raised up the hollow from us told me that he had found 62 silver dollars in the old house we had lived in then it all came back to me and I remembered my mother hiding the silver dollars. Of course we did not get them back but that is how silver dollars and other money can get lost or hidden.