December
 2003 Issue
James C. Johnston Jr.
Photos by Steven Vater

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        Now that I am in my 60th year, I look back to Christmas 1956. In my 12-year old glory and greed, I hankered for coins, books, stamps, raw lumber to build things with, antiques of all sorts – and gold.

            Oh, electric trains, bicycles, and Lincoln Logs were okay, and once I was given some modern plastic ship models I was pretty happy to have. But I come from a long line of deep-water Yankee seadogs. I wanted antique ship models (eventually I got quite a few) made of wood and fitted out with accurate rigging and sails. And I wanted gold.

            I read about gold in the wonderful works of Edward Rowe Snow, a 20th-century writer of books about the sea, pirates, treasure, shipwrecks, and cursed pirate hoards. Books like his True Tales of Buried Treasure, Amazing Sea Stories Never Told Before, and Secrets of the North Atlantic Islands fired my imagination and made me lust after gold.

            In 1956, sources of gold at Christmastime were rare. But where there is a will, greed will find a way. (I was way ahead of Wall Street’s villain Gordon Gecco, who said it right out loud: “Greed is good.” Now that takes real courage.) The very idea of gold coins made me tingle all over like the mythic English antiques dealer, Lovejoy, who felt pins and needles whenever he was near a great rarity. (This sensation was celebrated in a whole series of books about this loveable scoundrel.) At the time, I discovered that there was a policeman in town who dabbled in the coin trade on a part-time basis and actually had a gold piece for sale. I contrived to see it as soon as I could.

            It was a Russian five ruble coin of the hapless Czar Nicholas II. Nicholas was kicked off the throne of Russia in March of 1917. He was imprisoned all over his former empire, sent as far as Siberia with his entire family and then sent as far away as Ekaterinburg. If that was not bad enough, he was shot, clubbed, kicked, tossed in a truck, chopped up, and then thrown down a mine shaft where his remains, along with those of his family and doctor Bodkin and servant Demidovna, were burned and dissolved with acid. This act by the Bolsheviks was hateful to me, but here in front of me was an honest-to-goodness portrait of poor Nicholas II on this gold coin. It was not exactly pirate treasure, but it was gold and it had history. I alerted my parents to my Christmas wish and handed over to them the phone number of kindly Officer Carr.

	This Russian gold five ruble coin was the object of my Christmas lust. It bares the image of the hapless Nicholas II.

           They already knew him of course. Unbeknownst to me they secured the coin. They never let on, and I sweated out the ordeal. Christmas Eve was a trial. I found it difficult to sleep. The next morning came early, and my sisters and I made enough noise to wake my folks and my grandmother. At long last we went to the living room where a mountain of gifts had materialized overnight. This was an effort on the part of my parents to spoil us rotten. What a good job they did!

           There were skates, books, clothes, and a globe. But there was no gold in sight. Finally, my eyes wandered over to the fireplace where my large red stocking was hung with care. I took it down and deposited the contents on a tabletop. Something stuck in the toe of the stocking. Some careful probing was required to remove a very small box. I opened it, and there was the hapless czar himself, Nicholas II. My heart soared. I still have the coin today.

            Generally speaking, gold coins were a more common Christmas gift in the years preceding 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt demonetized gold as money. Coins were presented in little plush-lined boxes that were decorated in glossy red, green, or white paper or with gold or silver foil. Sometimes these Christmas coin boxes would be decorated with poinsettias. More affluent youngsters were given five, ten, or even 20-dollar gold pieces. 

            I hope that you, too, will get your gold piece from Santa this year. Merry Christmas to all and best of luck to you in 2004.

Although I had plastic versions, I eventually came to own real ship models like this one. I used the plastic ones for target practice with my crossbow.	This popular book bares the images of Leslie and Leigh Keno, whom I knew when they were 12-year old wonder kids. They are the only individuals I have ever known who, like me, wanted antiques for Christmas instead of conventional toys at the age of 12.	These books by Edward Rowe Snow fired my imagination as a kid. These were autographed by him for me.	Gold coins presented in fancy Christmas boxes were often given as gifts up until 1933.

            My Calendar

          If you want to catch up with me at a coin show as the year ends, here is where I will be: On Nov. 23 I will be at Ernie Bottle’s Westford Mass. Coin Show at the Westford Regency Inn and Conference Center. Take Route 495 north to exit 32. Take a right to Route 110. Turn right. The Westford Regency is located on the right. On Dec. 7, I will be at the Holiday Inn in Dedham, Mass., for Dick Murphy’s First Sunday Coin and Stamp Show. The Holiday Inn is located at Routes 128 and 1A in Dedham. On Dec. 14, I will be at Tom Lacy’s Greater Worcester Coin Show at the Best Western Yankee Drummer on Route 12 in Auburn. The hotel is located off Exit 10 on the Mass Pike. On Dec. 28, I will be back at the Westford Regency, and on Jan. 4, I will be back in Dedham at the Holiday Inn. Show hours are generally 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Come early. I continue to enjoy meeting all of you Journal readers at these shows.

You may email Jim Johnston at johnstonjim8@aol.com  You may also wish to check Jim's website for further updates.   www.johnstonantiques.com