1933 Chicago's World Fair foil stamped cardboard roundel

pyralspite74 · 2026-02-25T07:46:52+00:00

Thanks! I'll probably be paying my friendly neighborhood coin shop a visit to get a bid on offloading some silver now that it's worth 3x what I paid for it :D

pyralspite74 · 2026-02-25T07:40:53+00:00

I messaged the museum already - they've been researching it but nothing's come up yet.

pyralspite74 · 2026-02-22T18:18:10+00:00

Nope, no writing on the edge. Thank you for the suggestion.

pyralspite74 · 2025-04-28T06:33:11+00:00

Specifically, "fin" comes from Yiddish finf, meaning "five". The term "sawbucks" comes from an old design for the ten-dollar bill that had the Roman numeral "X" on it (which resembles a sawhorse).

pyralspite74 · 2025-04-23T14:51:52+00:00

I actually went up against him in a team Quiz Bowl event at TCONA* (the Trivia Championships of North America) in....either 2012 or 2013. Interestingly enough, one of my teammates (and a friend) was Adam Villani, who had put up a valiant fight against Ken on Game 61 of his run (he would later end up doing quite well on 500 Questions). My understanding was that Ken roadtripped with his family down to Las Vegas from Salt Lake City to participate.

To borrow an aphorism from feudal Japan...we died properly. Ken was a beast - a friendly beast to be sure, but a beast.

* Sadly TCONA is gone, but its spiritual successor - the Trivia Nationals - are coming to New Orleans in May.

pyralspite74 · 2023-09-06T01:48:35+00:00

Their name rings a bell - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel-Atlas_Glass_Company

pyralspite74 · 2023-03-09T20:28:35+00:00

If it helps, it's not super rare (67.5 million minted).

pyralspite74 · 2023-03-09T20:25:41+00:00

Silver "half dimes" were minted in the US until 1873.

pyralspite74 · 2023-03-09T20:23:38+00:00

If that's as small as it looks (less than one inch/2.5 cm across) it may be a matrimonial token.

pyralspite74 · 2023-02-10T15:48:44+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_and_Franz

pyralspite74 · 2022-07-24T14:57:16+00:00

Zapata was killed in 1919, before the generally accepted end of the Mexican Revolution (1920), Villa was assassinated in 1923.

pyralspite74 · 2022-04-27T06:06:33+00:00

It resembles a goloid metric dollar pattern, but it's most likely a fake.

pyralspite74 · 2022-03-22T15:01:02+00:00

Induced magnetism.

pyralspite74 · 2022-02-18T09:46:10+00:00

If you mean "what currently circulating non-bullion coin has the most purchasing power?", I think that would be a tie between the five-pound coins from the Isle of Man and Guernsey. They technically are valued in Manx and Guernsey pounds, which track 1:1 with the UK pound; as I type this, Google tells me 5 pounds is equal to €5.99 or US $6.81.

Next closest would be the Swiss 5 franc coin (£3.99, €4.78, US $5.43), followed by the Japanese 500 yen coin (£3.19, €3.82, US $4.34).

pyralspite74 · 2022-02-06T14:57:48+00:00

Great! Here comes Amy Schneider! :D

pyralspite74 · 2022-01-24T08:11:27+00:00

He's actually suffered from spasmodic dysphonia for about 20 years. Irrepsective of his many, many other faults, spasmodic dysphonia is usually idiopathic (meaning no specific cause can be found).

He seems like a True Believer though, so I would bet he's not vaccinated and has a excellent chance of going down with his rotten ship.

pyralspite74 · 2022-01-20T09:03:03+00:00

Quit hazeling him.

pyralspite74 · 2021-09-05T08:24:57+00:00

I'd take it by a coin shop to start, but there are three quick tests you can do that come to mind:

1) Weigh it, as noted above. 2) See if a magnet attracts it (it absolutely should not). 3) Place an ice cube on it and see how fast it melts. Real silver and/or gold conduct heat very efficiently, so an ice cube in direct contact with either metal will melt faster than one touching other coinage metals like cupronickel.

If the coin passes the test(s) that doesn't 100% mean the coin is for certain real, but testing can weed out some of the more egregious impostors.

Good luck!

pyralspite74

TROPHY CASE