{"id":1233,"date":"2009-11-01T16:43:53","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T00:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/11\/on_finding_jack_daws_penny\/"},"modified":"2009-11-01T16:43:53","modified_gmt":"2009-11-02T00:43:53","slug":"on_finding_jack_daws_penny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/11\/on_finding_jack_daws_penny.html","title":{"rendered":"On finding Jack Daws’ penny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jessica Reed<\/a>, the person who found Jack Daws<\/a>‘ counterfeit penny, is an artist. Here’s a cake she made in February in honor of Abe Lincoln’s birthday, starring his portrait on (what else?) a penny. <\/p>\n

\"jackdawspennycake.jpg\"(Previous post here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The chances of anyone noticing the penny <\/a>Daws cast in gold and slipped into circulation at LAX more than two years ago are slim. On the side of discovery, it’s slightly smaller than the ordinary one, because gold is heavier. If Daws’ penny were the usual size, its weight would have given it away. As it is, it’s three grams to a penny’s two. <\/p>\n

This weekend, Reed send Daws an email explaining how she found it.<\/p>\n

\"jessicareedcake.jpg\" “This is a story about finding a penny, but it begins with a dime. As for how it all ends, of that I have no idea… <\/p>\n

On Monday of last week (the 26th), I was counting out the 44 cents I needed to complete a purchase when I spotted an unfamiliar coin in the lot. Looking closer, I realized that it was a U.S. dime, minted in 1924, but unlike any dime I’d ever seen.
\nOnce home, I did a Google search and identified the dime as a 1924 Mercury Head; not very valuable, but beautiful none-the-less. <\/p>\n

Researching it reminded me that I had another unusual coin in my possession–a golden penny. I’d had it for a few months ( at least) having noticed it when I was paying for groceries at the neighborhood C-Town. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n


\nA fan of ‘not what you see everyday’ coins, I’d slipped it back into my
\nchange purse (coincidentally also gold-colored) to remain until I could
\nfind out a little more about it. I never spent it any of the times I
\nwent into that little zippered bag for change, but I never remembered
\nto look it up either. <\/p>\n

That said, having found the dime, I felt inspired and curious to see if
\nanything at all would be online about a golden penny. I started with a
\nGoogle search for “gold penny,” and came up with listings for science
\nexperiments to turn a penny gold-colored, but the images shown did not
\nmatch what I had. Next I tried ‘gold penny 1970’ the date stamped on
\nthe coin. <\/p>\n

The first link that came up was a post on forum.treasurenet.com: ‘Artist makes solid gold penny then puts it in circulation!!!’ I read
\nthrough the post; the story of an artist named Jack Daws who, in 2007,
\ncast ten counterfeit pennies in copper-plated solid gold. Nine of the
\nten were kept at the Greg Kucera Gallery<\/a> in Seattle, but one was spent
\nby the artist at LAX in late March of 2007. <\/p>\n

\nThe artwork looks like a real penny, except due to the casting
\nprocess, it’s slightly smaller, and because of the gold’s weight, it’s
\nalmost twice as heavy….Anyone interested in looking for the piece…
\nshould look for a penny dated 1970, with no mint mark.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nI looked at the penny I’d found. Date stamp, 1970. No mint mark.
\nSeriously?! I needed more. Pennies minted in San Francisco do not have
\nmint marks, and pennies minted in 1970 are the opposite of rare. <\/p>\n

Next test: I took the penny to the kitchen and pulled out my digital
\nscale. 3 grams. Running back to the bedroom, I pulled a few pennies out
\nof my change jar. My boyfriend, one of those who keeps a staggering
\namount of knowledge stored in his brain, mentioned that I should weigh
\nit against another coin from the early 70’s as the government changed
\nthe metal content of pennies in the 80’s. <\/p>\n

Sure enough, a 1972 penny weighed in at 2 grams. I honestly thought
\nthere was no way it could be the<\/i> penny. The chance of it being found
\nseemed too great. The chance of my having found it seemed too great. <\/p>\n

Still, I went to the website of the Seattle gallery that represents
\nDaws, Greg Kucera Gallery, to see if any further information was
\navailable, any sure tell that I had indeed found not only the penny,
\nbut a really good story as well. The same press release that I’d read
\nwithin the first post offered no new information, but there was, near
\nthe bottom of the page, a picture of the penny that Jack Daws spent. It
\nlooked like a penny. Any penny. But as the press release said, the coin
\nto look for has a date of 1970, no mint mark, and a heavier weight.
\nCould it be? <\/p>\n

I knew the next step would be to call the gallery, but it was late
\nevening in Brooklyn. I’d have to wait until the gallery opened the next
\nday. A sensation oddly like what it felt to be a kid awaiting Christmas
\nmorning filled me as I counted down the hours until they were scheduled
\nto open. 10:30 am on their end of the country, 1:30 pm on mine. That
\nChristmas-morning excitement never left. <\/p>\n

In fact, as I picked up the phone to call I noticed I was shaking, a
\nmillion hummingbird beating their wings at the speed of light in my
\nchest. By that time, I’d told a few close co-workers and we’d examined
\nthe coin with a high-magnification loupe. We could see what looked like
\nfaint birthmarks of copper on the ridge of Lincoln’s nose, outlining
\nhis profile and the rim of the coin. I went back and forth from
\nthinking ‘This has to be it,’ to thinking ‘How in the world can this be
\nthe coin.’<\/p>\n

When the gallery phone was answered, it took me a second to think what
\nin the world to say. Finally, I started with, ‘Hello, my name is
\nJessica. I live in Brooklyn, NY, and I think I found Jack Daws’ penny.’ ”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessica Reed, the person who found Jack Daws‘ counterfeit penny, is an artist. Here’s a cake she made in February in honor of Abe Lincoln’s birthday, starring his portrait on (what else?) a penny. (Previous post here.) The chances of anyone noticing the penny Daws cast in gold and slipped into circulation at LAX more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}