One Part Science, One Part Human Interest

April 20, 2016 12:02 PM

Message in a bottle, promising finder a shilling, bobs up after 108 years “We found an old shilling, I think we got it on eBay. We sent it to her with a letter saying thank you.”

Previously

posted by Michele in California (11 comments total)

Clearly they should put the shilling in a bottle and promise the recipient the German equivalent.
posted by AFABulous at 12:07 PM on April 20, 2016

I do like how they were scrupulous enough to go and get outdated currency just to fulfill Bidder's directions!
posted by tavella at 12:07 PM on April 20, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'd prefer the twaalf stuivers
posted by IndigoJones at 12:12 PM on April 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

a shilling, bobs up

I see what you did there.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:15 PM on April 20, 2016 [7 favorites]

The shilling was cute, though per the photo of the card and given that the finder was German don't they owe her an old mark?
posted by Wretch729 at 12:18 PM on April 20, 2016

Hmm, though that can't be right because I think a gold mark had substantially more buying power than a shilling. Was there a sub-denomination of the mark also called a mark? Was the mark just weak in 1906?

A stuiver was like a penny, so 12 pennies makes sense as being roughly equal to a shilling (20 shillings to the pound right?). So for the German Empire I'd expect something more like pfennigs. Huh.
posted by Wretch729 at 12:27 PM on April 20, 2016

Communication thrown into sea by Plymouth biologist in 1906 and found by German woman confirmed as oldest in the world

Damn! So the oldest woman in the world happens to find a message in a bottle from 1906? What are the odds of that?
posted by Naberius at 12:53 PM on April 20, 2016 [7 favorites]

This site has pre-war parity of 20.429 marks to the pound, which makes the mark a very good match for a shilling.
posted by Segundus at 1:09 PM on April 20, 2016

Bonus points for the message being found by a retired postal worker. The mail always gets through, etc.
posted by effbot at 1:17 PM on April 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

Ooo, your site looks more detailed than what I was looking at so I'll go ahead and assume its conversions are more accurate. Makes more sense.
posted by Wretch729 at 1:23 PM on April 20, 2016

Old enough that it uses archaic spelling and capitalization rules on the Dutch; interesting. ("Geen Mark noodig" in the corner would read "Geen postzegel nodig" today.)
posted by fifthrider at 5:09 PM on April 20, 2016 [1 favorite]