-40%

UNIQUE GREATER IDAHO PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION LUCKY PENNY ENCASED COIN

$ 7.91

Availability: 53 in stock
  • Condition: Used
  • Refund will be given as: Money Back
  • Item must be returned within: 30 Days
  • Restocking Fee: No
  • All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
  • Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer

    Description

    For all I know this is all made up, but the story behind this Encased "Penny" is that the idea of 'Greater Idaho' came from a contest held in the year 1900, the tenth anniversary of Idaho's statehood, with the winner announced in time to participate in the Pan American Exposition of 1901 held in Buffalo, New York.  The contest was the brainchild of Richard Story Sheridan, the new manager of Boise's then dominant newspaper the
    'Evening Capital News' who challenged the readership of the paper to make predictions about Idaho 120 years in the future, i.e. in 2021; with the winning idea to be made into a Souvenir Encased Lucky Penny to be handed out at the Idaho Pavilion at the Exposition.
    The winner of the contest, Martha Jane Canary said the idea came to her in a dream where Wild Bill Hickock's ghost told her that one day there would be a big fight between the city slickers and the frontier people that would result in the frontierspeople being compelled to seek refuge in one of the last bastions of western values, the then recently formed State of Idaho that would result in the formation of a newer state so large it would be called 'Great Idaho' or 'Greater Idaho', the newspaper never distinguished between the two terms.  There is some speculation that the choice of a woman as winner of this contest was motivated by the fact that
    Emma Edwards Green herself had won a similar competition to design the Idaho State Seal; although, this has never been confirmed as historical fact.
    Sadly, the basis of the winning design was widely pooh poohed at the time because it was too preposterous to imagine that a day would come when Americans would be excoriated for merely practicing their First and Second Amendment rights and defending the Establishment Clause.
    Some said that this negative reception had a calamitous effect upon Ms. Canary's sense of mental wellbeing and seeking solace in drink subsequently drank herself to death within a few years; her dying wish being that she be buried in the grave next to Wild Bill.
    As a result, examples of these
    Souvenirs
    are EXTREMELY RARE with this being the only known example.
    Low starting bid.  Good Luck.