It was just an ordinary autumn day and I was preparing here everything for the birthday celebration of my daughter. Since I was in a hurry, I asked my husband to take the garbage out and in few minutes he came back and was holding in his hand a coin. Ehm… boring? Ok, let me add one important fact. The coin he brought was from the year 1851.
Firstly I was just staring at it and didn´t believe how come he was able to find something like this. Something what is 163 years old, he just found on the pavement. Maybe some numismatists was moving and somehow lost it, maybe a dog found it in the grass, hard to say. All of a sudden so many questions started popping up in my mind. What´s the story of this coin? Who had to work hard to earn it? What one was able to buy for it? I became obsessed with it, literally I wanted to know everything.
As for the history of the city part I live in, I know it was just a village (situated close to the city) surrounded by the fields and around 1851 approximetaly one thousand inhebitants lived here. As you know I am curious and I decided to look up what happened during the year 1851 here in my city. I came to know that in Ostrava thanks to another one drill people discovered black coal reserves and the very next year the new mine was opened. Maybe some of the workers was the owner of the coin, why not.. In the same year was also opened the chain bridge over the river. What if that one person traveled to visit their relatives or went to buy something, maybe he or she went over the bridge ..why not? If only the coin could have told me its story…
As a matter of the fact I would like to point out that in the year 1851 the Czech republic as an independent state didn´t exist and it was under the control of Habsburg monarchy with the seat in Vienna – the capital of Austria. Why am I telling you? Well, if you check the coin, you can see that there is written 1 KREUZER and this word is originally from German language. It is maybe even more exotic to me because this change already doesn´t exist, now we use the Czech CROWN.
What was one able to buy for 1 KREUZER in the 19th century here? Well, don´t laugh but I would be able to buy just 1 kg of the potatoes :-D Anyway, here are some interesting facts I came across:
What was possible to buy for.. :
20 kreuzers: 1 kg of rice
30 kreuzers: hen
300-400 kreuzers: trousers
6000 kreuzers: cow
Sallary:
mason: 1.800 kreuzers/month
fireman: 1.000 kreuzers/month
officer: 1.600 kreuzers/month
teacher: 1.000 kreuzers/month
*Poor teachers in our history had to suffer a lot with such low sallary.
I know I can´t turn back the time, I know that the mistery of this coin will never be revealed. Some of you would maybe sell it even though the price of it isn´t anything extraordinary, just around 3-5 dollars, depends on the condition. I have better plan. I decided that it would be nice idea to give it to my children when they are older and to ask them to give it to their children. Isn´t it awesome to keep such historical heritage in the family?
Comments
Afro,
thank you for wishes and yes, I consider coins - especially historical ones something very interesting exactly like you.
Mr. Bob,
loool here it is the same as for the salary. And guess what? Poor teacher had to give money from his salary to his assistant!!! In the past every teacher had to co-work in the class with the assistant here.. So.. I guess they were able to buy a cow in four years :-D
If a teacher worked 6 months and saved every kreuzer, he might be able to buy a cow.
Maybe they even had female teachers back then and she might work a year to buy a cow :( because most countries pay teachers badly and female teachers are usually paid even less than the men.
Hmm...let me say..coins play a very important role to know about our past history. I have some and I always like to think that, yes, I have some precious objects. By the way many good wishes for your little one!
Eric,
LOOOOOL, thanx for your comment, btw Pupl Fiction is one of my most favourite movies ;-) and I immediately rememberd this scene :D hope my kids won´t ever need to hide this coin in that one way :D
Nawa,
dear, thanx for posting such interesting coins. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life before!!! You should start your mission - investigation :-p
I might get banned for making the comparison to American pop culture. Trust me, I give your writing the respect it truly deserves. Still, Quentin wrote it best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ukjdwLAIc A coin, watch, or whatever makes your heart feel content may not be enough. What really counts is our own grip on reality and the impact it makes upon our lives.
NICE :D
Heli, wooow that is really great, you must tell me one day about this coin! thanx for liking it :-p
Anele, yeah m freak :-D and I found it so inspiring, thanx for nice comment ;-)
Wow, this coin could be really something. It must be a bequeathed coin and was accidentally or unintentionally dropped from the purse.
Girl, it really mobilized you into action and made you go back to the root of its story. Pretty amazing! Thanks Luci for this wonderful story. 1851..... such a long time now, indeed!
Barbieee,
thannx for your comment and m looking forward to see your coin!!!
Saba,
thank you for wishes, nice of you ;-) and yeah even something totally mysterious might have happened!!! Good idea with detective :-D thanx for comment
Nice blog and happy birthday to your little daughter, I'm thinking of the third mystery too ( By whom the coin brought to the pavement)!!!.....Perhaps it came by a bird,......BTW, you can ask a detective to help you Luci, he/she may find the secret by fingerprinting :)
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