Coins melted during fires from 1906 SF quake

[Gruvpewp]

I found this at my mom's house. These were given to her by her father and were given to him by his grandfather. They are coins from a phone booth melted by the fires from the SF earthquake in 1906. He lived in the Bay Area and found these in the aftermath of the disaster. I thought they were amazing so I figured others would enjoy the unique item.

 

[huntsman53]

Way cool piece and way cool history on it! Thanks for sharing!


Frank

 

[kingskid1611]

That is exciting to see. I love the history you have with it. Congrats on keeping it passing down.

 

[Plumbata]

Very awesome piece!

 

[Argentium]

That is one very cool relic (hot relic ?) Anyway, what a conversation piece !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SusanMN]

Now that is a real family heirloom!

 

[JackalopeZL1]

That is awesome!!

 

[ARC]

Now that is a sweet little piece of history.
Very cool.

 

[Man o' War]

So cool, a real piece of history.

 

[CHUDs]

Sweet!

 

[pepperj]

What a great piece of history, thanks for sharing.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Thanx for posting the pix. I'm about 2 hrs. south of SF. A friend of mine up there found something similar while detecting some urban demolition teardown lot scrape: A blob of coins that had apparently been inside a piggybank, all fused together. I think they were all V-nickels, if I recall. He did not try to untangle or separate them. It was sort of cool just to leave-as-is. And he deduced it had come from the 1906 fires following the earthquake, like yours. Because the dates on the coins he could see, were all no newer than 1905 or so.

 

[UnderMiner]

Way cool! Just look at the detail of those V Nickles! They were brand new when the were melted together in that fire! Amazing artifact !

 

[Kevin in IN]

Thanks for the pics! So cool.

 

[Old Dude]

Awesome piece to have. Congrats!

 

[doc-d]

Thank you for sharing this very interesting piece of history…...

 

[bigfoot1]

that would be a dream find...

 

[doninbrewster]

Although it's possible it's from the great fire in SF, I might be a little skeptical. The visible nickels dated 1902 seem to have too much wear to only be 4 years old. Nickel is a very hard metal. Pull out a few 4 year old nickels from your pocket and they will probably look like new. Even nickels 10 or 20 years old might look new. They certainly appear to have been burnt in a fire, but it could have been 20 years later. Great story regardless. Cool stuff.

 

[Limitool]

You know..... That bit of history would look so cool mounted in a nice display case with old pics of the area in the background. Maybe a mirrored bottom and sidewalls to see different views of the coins. Just my simple take.... Brad

 

[pescadore]

That a very cool conversation piece and something to pass down for many more generations.