CoinTalk Members Share Holed Coins; One Describes Pieces Found at an Old Colorado Coal Mine

This article is based on posts in the CoinTalk forum thread "It's 'Holey Crow! It's Wednesday... post your Holey's also." The content consists of the posters' own statements and opinions and has not been verified by GNJ. The thread as retrieved does not show a posting date, so no date is given here.

Sharing Holed Coins

SensibleSal66 invited members to post their holed coins, which the thread calls "holeys," if they had any. Of the first piece shown, SensibleSal66 wrote of being clueless whether it was a coin made into a button or a gear.

lordmarcovan wrote that an 1814 Russian piece shown in the thread was likely a button. lordmarcovan also wrote of having too many holeys to post, and so would just post "the hat" and be done with it. Collecting Nut wrote of not having a single holey coin. dwhiz showed pieces the poster once had.

Pieces From a Coal Mine

Pickin and Grinin showed pieces found with a metal detector at an old coal mine in "Lydon," Colorado. According to the post, they were payment for labor and could be used only for rent and food at the miners' store. In another post, Pickin and Grinin wrote that the reverse is blank.

Bill in Burl wrote that the two pieces said to have come from a mine had a different use as well. According to Bill in Burl, each had a number and was hung on a board when a miner entered the mine, and when the day's work was done, the miners retrieved them. Bill in Burl wrote that any left hanging there often showed that the miner was still somewhere in the mine and might be dead or need help. Bill in Burl described it as a way to account for who was in the mine at any time.

In a separate post, Pickin and Grinin wrote of having in-laws whose grandparents worked in the mine, and of being sure that some of the accounts can be skewed. The poster wrote that the men were not paid in actual U.S. money and worked more or less for room and board. When the pieces were found, the poster was two or three levels down a concrete shaft, which has long been filled in.

KBBPLL asked whether the poster meant Leyden, Colorado, and wrote that the old Leyden coal mine is just north of Golden.

Why the Holes?

SensibleSal66 asked why holes were put through the coins. KBBPLL wrote that the poster's wife's grandmother was a rice trader and remembers strings of 1 Satang coins hanging in the shop. SensibleSal66 also suggested that maybe someone needed a button.

Source: CoinTalk, "It's 'Holey Crow! It's Wednesday... post your Holey's also."