You know you are getting old when:

[LizzieMaine]

"Mercury dime" earrings enjoyed a vogue of popularity in the 80s -- the idea was to cut out the silver around the figure of the Liberty head and leave the outer rim intact, and attach a hook to that. They looked good until you turned them around and saw the fasces on the back. Hobby-crafty type home jeweler types used up a lot of worn-down dimes on this type of thing.

Funny, though, I never saw any cutout FDR-head earrings.

 

[tonyb]

There’s many a button made from winged liberty dimes and Indian head nickels, hammered with concave backs filled with solder and a ring-like thing so that the coin can be sewn onto whatever a person chooses to sew it to. I confess to having procured a couple of them myself. I still have the nickel. A 1941 dime I gave to my then-girlfriend, seeing how 1941 was her year of birth. (Yes, she was somewhat my senior; she looked young for her age, and I looked old for mine.) It was a hit.

 

[belfastboy]

There’s many a button made from winged liberty dimes and Indian head nickels, hammered with concave backs filled with solder and a ring-like thing so that the coin can be sewn onto whatever a person chooses to sew it to. I confess to having procured a couple of them myself. I still have the nickel. A 1941 dime I gave to my then-girlfriend, seeing how 1941 was her year of birth. (Yes, she was somewhat my senior; she looked young for her age, and I looked old for mine.) It was a hit.

I have a few of the real buffalo nickel conchos, concave with a buffalo screw attachment. They are pricey at $22 each. I have bought repros for $1.50 each and I suppose on a hat, from a distance who can tell the difference.

 

[Edward]

And …

I doubt most people under age 50 or so know there was ever such a thing as a steel penny or a winged liberty dime. They’re likely familiar with Indian head nickels, though, seeing how the design still shows up with regularity in commercial signage, often in “Western” themed businesses, what with the buffalo on the reverse.

I have a vague recollection from my school production of Calamity Jane closing in on thirty-four odd years ago.... "a buffalo on the nickel and an Indian on the cent" - wasn't that the line? Somewhere I have a pair of cufflinks with 'Indian head' cents set in them. I also have a silver pinky ring with a buffalo nickel set on the top; the ring loop itself is made out of another coin, bearing the date 1964, if memory serves. I've not yet worn them together, but sometime I should!

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Those Indian pennies predate almost every living person. I’ve seen them in displays and collections, but never in circulation.

 

[GHT]

You know you're old when you suddenly realise your go-to pop culture reference for being old is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and your undergraduates look blank when you ask if they've seen it because it was in the cinema thirteen years before any of them were born.

Now I feel even older, because I'm wondering if I've posted this before...

Wondering if your memory is going so resonated with me Edward. The times that I have just perused a thread before replying, only to come across something that I had previously posted which had a similarity to which I was about to submit.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Here's one for my fellow American Baby Boomers: You know you're getting old when you remember saying the pledge of allegiance at the start of a school day while facing a forty-eight star flag.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We had a forty-eight star flag on the platform in church, and as far as I know it's still there to this day. The blue field, the last time I saw it, had turned a shade of lilac purple from age, but it was otherwise well preserved.

It was also common to see them displayed in front of houses on my block, because why buy a new one just because of Alaska and Hawaii? I've got one myself, that belonged to my grandparents, folded up somewhere in a box.

 

[tonyb]

There was briefly a 49-star flag, post-Alaska’s admission, pre-Hawaii’s.

I have a 48-star flag — a casket flag, I think, considering its size and lack of grommets — that serves to cover a steel bifold closet door. I never liked the look of that door, as it just doesn’t work with the rest of the stuff in that room. So I installed a curtain rod near the ceiling and suspended the flag from it.

A 50-star flag is stapled to the ceiling in our living room.

 

[belfastboy]

Here's one for my fellow American Baby Boomers: You know you're getting old when you remember saying the pledge of allegiance at the start of a school day while facing a forty-eight star flag.

We recited the Lord's Prayer and sang God Save the Queen.....I think that would be illegal today.

 

[tonyb]

We had a forty-eight star flag on the platform in church, and as far as I know it's still there to this day. The blue field, the last time I saw it, had turned a shade of lilac purple from age, but it was otherwise well preserved.

It was also common to see them displayed in front of houses on my block, because why buy a new one just because of Alaska and Hawaii? I've got one myself, that belonged to my grandparents, folded up somewhere in a box.

It can be interesting to see what simple exposure to the air can do to dyes over time.

My understanding is that a U.S. flag of any historical period is kosher as far as the flag code is concerned. So go ahead and fly your 48-star flag.

 

[GHT]

Here's one for my fellow American Baby Boomers: You know you're getting old when you remember saying the pledge of allegiance at the start of a school day while facing a forty-eight star flag.

Did you know that Flying the Union Jack flag upside down, is traditionally a distress signal, though not an official one. I would be hard pushed to tell the difference, whether correct or inverted.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
Well, now I‘ll know to look at the upper right to quickly tell ‘em apart.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's a design feature? All these years I just thought they were printing it out of register.

 

[GHT]

That's a design feature? All these years I just thought they were printing it out of register.

The Union Flag, or Union Jack, is the national flag of the United Kingdom. It is so called because it combines the crosses of the three countries united under one Sovereign - the kingdoms of England and Wales, of Scotland and of Ireland (although since 1921 only Northern Ireland has been part of the United Kingdom.)

The first version of the flag was created in 1606, featuring only the English and Scottish flags. The Union Jack was amended in 1801 to incorporate the cross of St. Patrick (Ireland.)

The Welsh dragon does not appear on the Union Flag. This is because when the first Union Flag was created in 1606, the Principality of Wales by that time was already united with England and was no longer a separate principality. The Union Flag was originally a Royal flag.

 

[tonyb]

That's a design feature? All these years I just thought they were printing it out of register.

In deference to our British friends, I’m resisting the temptation to tell the joke about why the British don’t make computers.

 

[GHT]

In deference to our British friends, I’m resisting the temptation to tell the joke about why the British don’t make computers.

They can't figure out how to make them leak oil.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
Kinda like the early 20th Century industrialist who was torn between opening a new automobile plant in Detroit or growing a lemon plantation.

 

[belfastboy]

View attachment 592877
The Union Flag, or Union Jack, is the national flag of the United Kingdom. It is so called because it combines the crosses of the three countries united under one Sovereign - the kingdoms of England and Wales, of Scotland and of Ireland (although since 1921 only Northern Ireland has been part of the United Kingdom.)

The first version of the flag was created in 1606, featuring only the English and Scottish flags. The Union Jack was amended in 1801 to incorporate the cross of St. Patrick (Ireland.)
View attachment 592876 View attachment 592880
The Welsh dragon does not appear on the Union Flag. This is because when the first Union Flag was created in 1606, the Principality of Wales by that time was already united with England and was no longer a separate principality. The Union Flag was originally a Royal flag.

Plus the green would really clash badly with the rest of the colour scheme

 

[Rmccamey]

How to be a Million dollar rancher? Start with 2 Million!

^^^^^^
Kinda like the early 20th Century industrialist who was torn between opening a new automobile plant in Detroit or growing a lemon plantation.