I left my favorite Tennesee Trapper in Hungary

[T. Erdelyi]

I just came back from 4 weeks in Europe visiting family and vacationing after having a dinner of wild boar and venison chili I made the decision to leave my Old Timer Jigged Bone Trapper with someone who would appreciate it, he did and in turn explained that it was a custom among the hunters to give a coin in trade for a knife given as a gift so as not to jeopardize the friendship, I told him when we gave knives away we did the same thing.

The coin he gave me was a one ounce silver 200 forint coin, no longer in circulation in Hungary(they realized in a few days after making 10,000 of these coins the value in silver was more than the face value of the coin).

Man I miss that knfe but I'll cherish the coin given in trade.

 

[textoothpk]

A German friend gave me a knife once, but just before hand, he asked me for a penny. So the knife would not cut the strings of friendship. And I know that is a custom here in the USA. I guess it is international. Also I know there is a strong tradition of hunting in Germany; may I assume that is also true in Hungary?

Anyway, thanks for posting this. Sounds like you both got a good deal.

Phil

 

[T. Erdelyi]

In the village where my mother grew up hunting and fishing are a major way of feeding the family, with the Danube less than a kilometer away and the village surrounded by woods, nearly everyone hunts or fishes.

The younger people are putting the old traditions away in favor of convience, like buying their rabbit and deer at the Tesco(European version of Walmart), still all my cousins hunt and fish so I gave away a lot of knives.

 

[Don Luis]

It's a good thing to give a knife to someone who will appreciate it, I've seen the pic of that trapper, it's nice.

Face value of a coin?, interesting, though it is common for coins to appreciate with time, there was a time in Mexico when people were melting 1 peso coins to make rivets because it was cheaper than buying metal, I remember once my daughter wanted to buy some round plastic chips to play and it was cheaper to give her some coins.

Here's a 1 centavo coin from the year of my birth, if you take it at face value, divide by 1000 because of the three zeros taken off the peso some years ago and convert it to US currency, you would need over 1 million of these to make $1 US.

Luis


Click to enlarge