Gwendy's Button Box

15

Selling the silver coins isn’t back on Gwendy’s radar until she sees the advertising flyer taped to the front window of the Castle Rock Diner. After that, it’s pretty much all she can think about. There was that one trip to the coin shop, true, but it was mostly of an exploratory nature. Now, however, things have changed. Gwendy wants to attend an Ivy League university after she graduates from high school—and those places don’t come cheap. She plans to apply for grants and scholarships, and with her grades she’s sure she’ll get something, but enough? Probably not. Surely not.

What is a sure thing are the 1891 Morgan silver dollars stacked inside a shoebox in the back of her closet. Over a hundred of them at last count.

Gwendy knows from leafing through back issues of COINage magazine at the drug store that the fair-trade price of the Morgans is not just holding steady; their value is still rising. According to the magazine, inflation and global unrest are driving the market in gold and silver coins. Her first idea was to sell enough of the coins (maybe in Portland, more likely in Boston) to pay for college and figure out how to explain the sudden windfall only when it becomes absolutely necessary. Maybe she’ll say she found it. Hard to believe, but also hard to disprove. (The best-laid plans of sixteen-year-olds are rarely thought out.)

The Coin & Stamp Show flyer gives Gwendy another idea. A better idea.

The plan is to take two of the silver dollars, enough to test the waters, and bike down to the VFW first thing this weekend to see what she can get for them. If they actually sell, and for real money, then she’ll know.