Will you get a load of this? I don’t see these very often any more. I used to collect coins from circulation back when it was still fairly easy to find a 1941 nickel among the coins in my pocket change. It’s been at least five years since I’ve plucked a coin more than seventy years old out of circulation.

There I was, thumbing through a handful of silver in front of the candy machine, when I spotted the familiar greenish patina of a very old coin. I couldn’t make out the mint mark on the back — my eyes aren’t good enough for that now — but, turning it over, I could easily read the date, and it made my eyebrows arch.

This will have a special place on my desk for the next week before I return it to circulation in the hopes it’ll delight someone else, or perhaps inspire a latent collector.