Here is one for the record books ... This evening I finished aciding apart some skirts for the rare M-3062 ( New Lexington) [id=467040015] which come marked " Patented /June 17 1890 " . Jeffrey Kramer and I recovered several of these rare multi's this spring wile hunting in Ct. We found only found one mint inner skirt for one of these multiparts in our ten days of hunting. Today I pulled it out of the acid bath and discovered something I have never seen before on any porcelain insulator. A COIN IMPRESSION! No kidding!

Seriously ... It appears to be an impression from a 1883-1913 "V" nickel . When one calculates the shrinkage and slight distortion from the coin being removed from the clay the diameter of a nickel fits what would have been the diameter of the circle before firing and drying with the edges of the circle pushed over and curled inwards a bit after the coin was removed from the clay . It is hard to make out the date but it is clearly the obverse of the coin with 12 of the 13 stars visible and the liberty head impression in the center...

So who did this and why? It is so odd to hold this in your hands ... it was made in April of 1904 served in service for about eight years then it was tossed into permanently flooded swamp around 1908 where it laid lost till this last spring when Jeffrey Kraemer and I pulled the insulator from the water of a small swamp in central Connecticut .

As I hold it I wonder what stories it could tell .... [id=470970953] to see it up close Needless to say this skirt will not be re-cemented into another insulator...