BrianRxm Coin Stories 4/17
Mark Twain's Turkish Penny and the Gold Napoleon
Mark Twain tries to retrieve a gold coin mistakenly given to a beggar
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In 1867 Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) joined a ship excursion to Europe and the Middle East and published a very popular book about his travels, The Innocents Abroad, in 1869, followed by A Tramp Abroad, published in 1880.
 
In his book A Tramp Abroad, he wrote about an incident in which he accidently gave a blind beggar a gold coin instead of a copper coin and his attempt to retrieve the coin.
 
The Story:
 
In 1867 Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) joined a ship excursion to Europe and the Middle East and published a very popular book about his travels, The Innocents Abroad, in 1869. He made several trips to Europe and published another travel book, A Tramp Abroad, in 1880.
 
In A Tramp Abroad, he writes about an incident which occurred during his 1867 trip when he accidently gave a blind beggar a gold coin instead of a copper coin and his attempt to retrieve the gold coin.
The Turkish Penny:
 
The episode with the showman reminds me of a dark chapter in my history. I once robbed an aged and blind beggar-woman of four dollars - in a church. It happened this way. When I was out with the Innocents Abroad, the ship stopped in the Russian port of Odessa and I went ashore, with others, to view the town. I got separated from the rest, and wandered about alone, until late in the afternoon, when I entered a Greek church to see what it was like. When I was ready to leave, I observed two wrinkled old women standing stiffly upright against the inner wall, near the door, with their brown palms open to receive alms. I contributed to the nearer one, and passed out.
 
I had gone fifty yards, perhaps, when it occurred to me that I must remain ashore all night, as I had heard that the ship's business would carry her away at four o'clock and keep her away until morning. It was a little after four now. I had come ashore with only two pieces of money, both about the same size, but differing largely in value - one was a French gold piece worth four dollars, the other a Turkish coin worth two cents and a half. With a sudden and horrified misgiving, I put my hand in my pocket, now, and sure enough, I fetched out that Turkish penny!
 
Here was a situation. A hotel would require pay in advance - I must walk the street all night, and perhaps be arrested as a suspicious character. There was but one way out of the difficulty- I flew back to the church, and softly entered. There stood the old woman yet, and in the palm of the nearest one still lay my gold piece. I was grateful. I crept close, feeling unspeakably mean; I got my Turkish penny ready, and was extending a trembling hand to make the nefarious exchange, when I heard a cough behind me. I jumped back as if I had been accused, and stood quaking while a worshiper entered and passed up the aisle.
 
I was there a year trying to steal that money; that is, it seemed a year, though, of course, it must have been much less. The worshipers went and came; there were hardly ever three in the church at once, but there was always one or more. Every time I tried to commit my crime somebody came in or somebody started out, and I was prevented; but at last my opportunity came; for one moment there was nobody in the church but the two beggar-women and me. I whipped the gold piece out of the poor old pauper's palm and dropped my Turkish penny in its place. Poor old thing, she murmured her thanks - they smote me to the heart. Then I sped away in a guilty hurry, and even when I was a mile from the church I was still glancing back, every moment, to see if I was being pursued.
 
That experience has been of priceless value and benefit to me; for I resolved then, that as long as I lived I would never again rob a blind beggar-woman in a church; and I have always kept my word. The most permanent lessons in morals are those which come, not of booky teaching, but of experience.
The French Coin:
 
The "French gold piece worth four dollars" had to be a French 20 franc coin, commonly called a "Napoleon", as it had a portrait of the French king Napoleon III on it. It was 21 mm in diameter and weighed around 6.40 gm. Napoleons circulated widely as trade coins in the Middle East at the time.
 
France 20 Francs 1863
1. France 20 Francs 1863 "Napoleon"
Gold, 21 mm, 6.41 gm, Strasbourg mint
The Turkish penny:
 
The "Turkish penny", "Turkish coin worth two cents and a half", "both about the same size", is harder to identify.
 
Turkey, or the Ottoman Empire then, had a monetary system based on the piastre or qirsh which was worth around US five cents. A piastre was divided into 40 Paras.
 
The Innocents Abroad mentions the worth of a piastre in this description of a guide:
 
...he called for remuneration -- said he hoped the gentlemen would give him a trifle in the way of a few piastres (equivalent to a few five cent pieces).
 
A Turkish coin worth 2-1/2 cents would be a 20 para coin worth one-half of a piastre. Turkey made two types of 20 para coin then, a very small silver coin (14 mm) and a large copper coin (32 mm). Neither coin would be close in size to the 21 mm French gold coin.
 
Turkey 20 para AH 1277
2. Turkey 20 para silver Abdul Aziz AH 1277 (AD 1862)
Silver, 13 mm, 0.59 gm
This coin is smaller than the US three-cent coin.
 
Turkey 20 para AH 1277
3. Turkey 20 para copper Abdul Aziz AH 1277 (AD 1864)
Copper, 32 mm, 10.16 gm
This coin is the size of a British penny and close in size to a US large cent.
 
Turkey did make a 23 mm copper 5 para coin which was close in size to the 21 mm Napoleon and was worth around one-half of a US cent.
 
Turkey 5 para AH 1277
4. Turkey 5 para copper Abdul Aziz AH 1277 (AD 1864)
Copper, 23 mm, 5.36 gm
Conclusion:
 
Mark Twain's "Turkish penny" was probably a Turkish 5 para coin. He wrote A Tramp Abroad ten years after the 1867 incident and probably didn't remember the US value of the coin.
United States Mark Twain commemorative coins of 2016:
 
The United States issued commemorative coins in 2016 to honor writer Mark Twain. The coins were a silver dollar and a five-dollar gold coin.
 
United States Mark Twain
5. United States Commemorative Dollar 2016 - Mark Twain
Silver, 38 mm, 26.73 gm
 
United States Mark Twain
6. United States Commemorative Five Dollars 2016 - Mark Twain
Gold, 22 mm, 8.36 gm
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