The following is a bit of family trivia.I have posted photos of the coin before I place it in our lock box but that remains a challenge to get a clear image of this coin.The photos were taken on a box which also contained an 1879 silver dollar..hence the apparent legend...which refers to the second coin.
The Harris Coin
Among the personal effects of my father I discovered a 1809 half dollar with the name Harris scratched in the face of what is a called a capped bust 50 cent piece. Current Ebay prices suggest a value of $100 to $200, but the scratched name likely destroys that extrinsic value.
A description was found in a volume of Harris genealogy with the addition of Dad’s note as follows:
“I (Edward Bledsoe Harris) have inserted this copy of a note from Norman Bond Harris, older brother of John Augustus Harris, showing descent from the Earl of Shrewsbury. I have the coin.”
The copied note of Norman Bond Harris recites the following history:
“This half dollar (American of 1809) comes down to the head of the Harris House as (I suppose) a lucky coin. My father ( Henry C. Harris) gave it to me, saying his father Wilmond Pitman had given it to him; and, I believe, his (illegible) , Col. Edmond Harris, had given it to his father; and so far as I know it may come from one generation farther back.
“I was brat and do not remember all my father’s words—let the coin pass to my oldest boy and thence to his oldest boy, and so on down. But let it remain with the Harris House, if all the boys be girls then let it pass to the next in order of the Harris House.
“If I die therefore without male issue let the coin pass to the oldest son of the brother next me (sic) (Adams) and so on down Augustus the line. Let no member dare dispose of the coin, save in case of absolute & dire need of food.
“This is my will--& I believe it was my father’s will this eighth day of July A.D. 1888.
(Rev) Norman Bond Harris first son of
(Rev) Henry Canova Harris first son of
Wilmond Pitman Harris first son of
Col Edmond Harris second son of (1st son died at 16)
Henry Harris (officer in King’s Army) son of
Eldred Harris, Earl of Shrewsbury”
There appears to a marginal signature of possibly a witness, Madison Glorida, dated July 8th, a888.
Transcribed by Bayard Easter Harris in Roanoke ,Virginia on the 5th day of April, 2008.
