● Next Meeting Status:
Cancelled
● Host Society for the
BANS 2011 Congress
held in Southport
A Priceless Sovereign Of 1906
In August 1932 my father, who spent his early working life in a shoe factory, had the rare opportunity to change career by opening a small newsagent and tobacconist shop. However, he needed to find a considerable sum as a down payment to secure the newly built premises. My grandmother, being ever a shrewd business woman, didn’t offer the money (£300) as a gift but agreed to lend the cash, to be repaid on an agreed rate of interest.
The next few weeks were spent frantically stocking the shelves and preparing window displays ready for the grand opening in October. When my father took over the building on completion he decided to leave the family home and sleep at the shop – even though he didn’t even have a bed. The morning of the ‘grand opening’ duly arrived. Everything in the shop would have been checked and double checked, windows cleaned, counters polished and newspapers laid out in an orderly fan ready for the first expected customers.
On making a final inspection of the shop floor my father noticed that a number of
dead leaves and other small litter from the street had blown in under the shop door.
He quickly sprang into action with a brush to clear up the mess, which included a
screwed-
I can only imagine the look of astonishment on his face when out of the newspaper rolled a gold sovereign! No letter or note was attached, no message of good luck or goodwill, just the sovereign. It could have easily been swept away with the other intruding street debris and was only discovered by pure chance.
The opening of the shop was a great success and my father and mother ran the business for over thirty five years. I spent a happy childhood living in the house behind and above the shop and on a number of occasions was treated to a glimpse of this enigmatic treasure with the story of its discovery being related to me many times with much gusto. Back in the 1930s, with the country in economic recession, a gold sovereign represented a considerable amount of money and probably had purchasing power in excess of its bullion value of today. The anonymous friend certainly made an extremely generous gesture.
In 1997 my father died in his ninetieth year. He’d had a good working life and enjoyed
a happy retirement but went to his grave never knowing the identity of the mysterious
well-
Alan M Dawson
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