Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1892 — But Where’s the Quarter? [ARTICLE]

But Where’s the Quarter?

“Did you ever try stamping a coin with your name and sending it out on its journey?” said Bourke Lenord, of Montreal. “Four years ago I did that. I stamped a quarter while in New York City and passed it the same day for a basket of grapes. Three days later I left the city;- I went direct to Mount Clemens, Mich., from New York and put up at the Avery House. I hadn’t been there two days before a friend of mine, and a commercial tourist, came to the same house and took rooms. I was sitting out on the piazza listening to the music that they have every evening, when he came up and said: “ ‘l’ve got something here that belongs to you, Leonard. ’ “ ‘What’s that?’ I asked. “ ‘When did you stamp this quarter?’ “ ‘Not over four days ago,’ I said, rising up in surprise. He held it out to me, and, sure enough, there was my coin. He had been in New York at the same time, and had received it in change from a saloon on the Bowery. Well, that was once. That same quarter came to me a year later while I was stopping at the Alexander House. A drummer friend of mine had picked it up in Kansas City, and had held it for me. I turned that quarter loose again upon the market, and within six months I had it again, brought, of course, to me by a friend of mine who had taken it in change from some hotel clerk down in Indiana. Well, I took it up and passed it again. From that time on until now I have never seen it, but there is no telling. I expect to run. across it shortly. A friend of mine stamped his name on one six years ago and sent it out, but it failed to return. Must have been taken up by a bank and sent to the Treasury. I don’t think it would go that long without coming back. It’s interesting if nothing else. You want to try it. ”