Hit ‘Em When They Least Expect It; “Coins” Makes A Sudden Return

Like Cassius Clay landing a big blow to Sonny Liston’s nose and then quickly landing another, I respond just one day after the debut of  “The Coin Collection” with a quick one-two and do it again.

Can’t let people get too comfortable or set in their ways. Gotta keep em on their toes.

I’ve checked and checked, got the magnifying glass out, and it’s not there. I’ll probably check again in a few years to see if it suddenly decides to appear.

If this 1936 Canadian penny had a little dot under the date, I might be lighting cigars with twenty dollar bills right now. There are only three or four known, and at auction could sell for several hundred thousand bucks.

The 1936 dot penny was actually made in 1937, but a King thing happened and threw everybody off guard. Edward Vlll abdicated the throne so he could marry an American gal, Wallis Simpson, and so at the beginning of 1937 there was no King’s image to go on the penny. So they continued putting 1936 on the new ones, only with a dot below the date.

When King George Vl was finally made King, the mint melted these dot pennies and they did a good job of it because like I say, there’s only a few around anywhere.

The Habs of 1936-37 were a good but not great team, and although they won the Canadian division, lost in the semi-finals to the Detroit Red Wings. 1936 was the year Howie Morenz made his emotional return to Montreal after playing in Chicago and New York, but in January of 1937, just around the time the Canadian Mint was making 1936 dot pennies, Morenz got a foot caught on the boards and fractured his leg and would eventually pass away on March 8, 1937 from reasons ranging from medical complications to a broken heart.

Morenz would be gone just two months before George Vl’s coronation and the Mint making 1937 pennies for real.

Montreal Canadiens born in 1936 include the great Henri Richard, plus Andre Pronovost, Ab McDonald, Ted Harris, and Dick Duff, along with Claude Laforge who played five games for the team in 1957-58, and Reg Fleming and Murray Balfour who played three and five games before they were shipped to Chicago where they blossomed into stars.

Others born in 1936 – Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, actors Burt Reynolds and Dennis Hopper, and one of my favourites, right-handed pitching ace Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers.