TREASURE IN THE CELLAR CHOCOLATE COINS

In conjunction with the launch of my book, Treasure in the Cellar, at the Baltimore 2008 American Numismatic Association convention, I had a thousand chocolate coins "minted" with an image of a $20 coronet gold piece on the obverse and the book website URL on the reverse. The $20 obverse was electronically rendered from the image of an actual Baltimore hoard coin.

The coins were shipped in dry ice from Texas to the convention hotel, where they were hand carried into the bourse in order to avoid premature meltage. A few people who stopped by the table indicated that they collected chocolate coins, and some speculation was offered as to whether they ought be "slabbed."

One young man, who should have known better, decided to start his own Baltimore hoard, and stopped by the table about every two minutes for the better part of a day. If he got an upset stomach he certainly deserved it.

Other than that, the coins were graciously received by just about everyone else. They are not terribly expensive to produce, as I recall we spent a couple hundred dollars on the whole batch. Somewhere in the archives one remains, and I believe a few others saved theirs as well.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: CHOCOLATE COINS, ATTRIBUTED AND PRICE-CODED (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v14n01a18.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web