The Coin Necklace Heirloom!

This is a post about two very surprising things that happened recently: one awesome one, and one not so awesome one ;)

Let’s start with the awesome, shall we?

My mother found a coin necklace passed down through my family!

She found it while cleaning out some old drawers, and the second she handed it to me I was in heaven. Apparently it belonged to my great grandma, and possibly even previous descendants before her!

Look at this gem!

It’s a French 5 Francs from 1867, and has a decent chunk of silver in it too comprising of 0.723 ounces. The obverse shows NAPOLEON III EMPEREUR along with a pretty mug of his, and the reverse – EMPIRE FRANCAIS – 1867 with “crowned and mantled arms” in the center.

It’s a large and heavy one too!

Probably only worth a little more than silver melt in its condition (though the chain could be worth something?), but the sentimental value is sky high. It’s been heavily cleaned to make it “pretty again” according to my mom (NO MOM!!! NEVER AGAIN!), and just an overall incredible thing to hold in your hands. Who knows how many of my ancestors have held it? It’s 150 years old!

More info on it can be found here, via NGC: France 5 Francs KM# 799.1

So this was the GOOD surprise :) The bad one?

My mother and I have lost the necklace (!!!)

Yup, that’s right, what was once giveth has since been taketh away. Ugh….

I happened to leave it on my mom’s kitchen counter before heading home that night, and when I called to ask her to please hold it for me somewhere safe, she asked me where it was.

“Right there on the counter, next to your car keys.”

“Are you sure? It’s not here?”

“Yeah I’m sure – it was a beauty and I can’t believe I forgot it!!”

“Well it’s not here. Did you check the bag of food I sent home with you? Maybe it got slipped into there?”

“No – it’s not in the bag, mom. Are you sure it’s not there on the counter?”

“It is not.”

“Uh-oh….”

It’s been about two months now and still no sign of it :( The best we can surmise is that it was accidentally scooped up and added to the wrong bag as my mom was cleaning up the kitchen. She had a couple of bags to put back into storage after showing other items to me, and then some to throw out full of trash

We’re fairly certain it went right into the trash bags :(

So let this be a lesson to everyone to KEEP YOUR TREASURES SAFE! Don’t be careless like me leaving your gems scattered around!

And if you’re reading this up there in heaven, Nunna, I AM SO SORRY!!! But please know it has brought joy into my life, even if momentarily, and now that joy is being spread out to all 10 readers of my blog and we thank you for it :)

Thank goodness I snapped pics so it’ll live on! And not like we can bring this stuff with us when we’re gone anyways, right? Or is there some sort of Coin Clause up there above?

We’ll see if fate brings it back to us, but for now that puppy is long gone… Now if you can tell me something stupid you’ve done with your coins lately, that’ll help me feel much better please :)