Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1881 — A Well-Filled Penny. [ARTICLE]

A Well-Filled Penny.

1 Not long ago I saw one of the old English pennies that was coined in the reign of George 111. It was very large and thick and heavy, and looking at this clumsy old coin reminded me of one that a shopkeeper near London once took at his counter.

It seemed to him so heavy that he looked at it closely and found it had been divided and fastened together by a fine screw. He unscrewed it and found inside a half-penny divided in the same way; he opened that, and there was a farthing; and inside of that a half-farthing. The date was 1799. Probably that curious old penny had been going on its travels for years, and boys and girls had had it in their pockets, little thinking that there were three colas Inside oiit.