Where Has This Old Penny Been?

I've come to be in possession of an 1817 Penny. Or at least I think it's 1817; its so completely worn, the head and date are almost indistinguishable. '181' is visible, and I think it shows a 7, but I suppose it could be 9.

At any rate, the date isn't terribly important. It's the idea. This penny is about 190 years old. It dates back to the earliest days of the Republic. The story of how I have come to be in possession of this coin is a lot less interesting than that of a woman who found an 1793 Liberty Penny last year and, truly, a lot less lucrative. Hers, which reaches back almost to the founding of our country, could be worth somewhere between $1500-3000. Mine could be worth $20. I won't be selling it regardless of what it is worth, but it got me thinking.

The War of 1812 had just concluded - a time in which the very independence of the country was tossed in some doubt, the US was at war with Canadian provinces, one of which has recently hosted my family and me as tourists.

And this penny was brand new. What else has this penny seen?

It is now warn from an untold number of fingers having been run across it; it has been in innumerable transactions. How long would it have to be handled to be so worn?

Let your mind wander: imagine the pants someone may have worn as they put this penny in their pocket, rubbing it as they walked; what might have been bought with this penny?

Who may have touched this penny? What might the transactions in which it was spent or earned looked like? Did it go into a box or some kind of rudimentary cash register?

Imagine, transport by horse and importation by ship. Waiting months for goods and people to traverse the Atlantic Ocean.

I wanted to take a look at what the US looked like in 1810, the year in which the census had been most recently taken before the minting of this coin. As it so happens, almost all the population schedules were damaged in a fire in 1921 and later destroyed by bureaucratic error.

This penny was new when the author of Walden or Life in the Woods ,a book that had a profound influence on me as a young man, was a mere baby. Henry David Thoreau was brand new with this penny some 190+ years ago.