John Wilkerson's Halfpenny Token

 

John Wilkinson's Halfpenny Token (and the vast majority of 18th-century English trade tokens) were not official legal tender issued by the government or the Royal Mint.  Instead, they occupied a fascinating grey area as private emergency coinage. During the late 18th century, the British Royal Mint experienced a severe shortage of official small-change copper coins (halfpennies and farthings). Industrial magnates like ironmaster John Wilkinson struggled to find small change to pay their massive workforces. To solve this, Wilkinson took it upon himself to mint his own high-quality copper tokens.

While not legal tender backed by the Crown, they were widely accepted as valid currency by necessity. Wilkinson guaranteed their value by honoring them at his own businesses, ironworks (such as Willey, Snedshill, Bersham, and Bradley), and designated regional offices. Workers could freely spend them at local shops, which trusted that Wilkinson would redeem them for official coin or notes.

Because they were privately issued tokens rather than royal currency, the government tolerated them because they filled a critical economic void. They circulated heavily across Britain until Parliament eventually clamped down on private tokens, outlawing them and officially demonetizing tokens like Wilkinson's in the early 19th century (with the final widespread bans taking effect around 1831).

The ironmaster John Wilkinson who issued those famous industrial halfpenny tokens was the older brother of Mary Wilkinson, making him the brother-in-law of the famous scientist and theologian Joseph Priestley (who discovered oxygen).

John Wilkinson and his brother William were powerhouse industrialists of the Industrial Revolution in England. Because John Wilkinson amassed a vast fortune through ironworks, canals, and manufacturing, he was uniquely positioned to mint his own tokens to pay his workforce.

The family ties also ran deep in their professional and personal lives. John Wilkinson was a financial supporter of Joseph Priestley later in life, helping sustain Priestley's scientific pursuits and assisting him during periods of political turmoil and hardship, especially when Joseph and Mary Priestley and their family exiled themselves to America in 1794 and settling in Northumberland, PA.

The Boomerang Story

 Over 50 years ago, when I was a grad student, I had an friend who was a professor of Astronomy.  He went on sabbatical with his family to Australia for a year.  One day I received a padded envelope from Australia from my friend. The envolope had nothing inside, but there was a note on the outside that was put on there by the US Postal Service that said that the contents had apparently pushed its way out of the package and was lost.  However, if I could tell them what was in the package, they might be able to locate it and send it to me.

I remember thinking that it would be a fat chance that they could recover the item, but, first, I had to find out what was in the padded envelop. I wrote a letter to my friend telling him about the situation (there was no email in those days),  A few weeks later I got a response that he had sent a boomerang for my young son.  I filled out the Postal form and sent it in to them, not really expecting anything in return.

Wouldn't you know it, after a few weeks a got a package in the mail from the Post Office with a boomerang inside.  Well, I was quite shocked, to tell you the truth.  In all that bureaucracy of the Post Office they were able to sort it all out and locate this needle in a haystack.  Not only that, it was a boomerang that went in one direction and ultimately ended up where it was supposed to go in yet another direction: the boomerang had boomeranged!

The Most Lucrative and Widespread Scams and what AI Can do to Help Mitigate them

 

The Most Lucrative Scams (Highest Financial Loss)

Scam Category	Target Medium	How It Works
1. Investment & Crypto Schemes ("Pig Butchering")	Social Media, Dating Apps, Messaging Platforms	Fraudsters build trust over weeks or months before convincing victims to invest in fake cryptocurrency or trading platforms. Victims see artificial "gains" on a compromised app, encouraging larger deposits until withdrawals are blocked.
2. Business Email Compromise (BEC)	Email / Phishing	Cybercriminals hack or spoof executive or vendor email accounts to intercept official transactions, tricking employees into wiring corporate funds or altering real invoice payment details.
3. Imposter & Bank Security Fraud	Phone Calls (Vishing), Text Messages (Smishing)	Scammers pose as bank fraud departments, IRS agents, or law enforcement. They create urgency by warning of a "compromised account" and direct victims to move their money to a "safe" account or crypto kiosk.
4. Tech Support Fraud	Browser Pop-ups, Cold Phone Calls	Fake security warnings prompt users to call a support line. Scammers gain remote access to the victim's computer, claim to fix nonexistent viruses, and drain bank accounts directly or demand cash/gold couriers.
5. Romance Scams	Dating Sites, Social Media	Fraudsters create fake online personas to establish emotional connections, eventually fabricating emergencies (medical bills, travel delays, legal troubles) to extract money.

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The Most Widespread Scams (Highest Volume)

• Phishing & Smishing: Mass emails or texts disguised as notifications from delivery services (USPS, UPS), streaming platforms, or banks asking users to click a link and "verify" login credentials or credit card info.

• Online Shopping & Non-Delivery Scams: Fake storefronts on social media selling items at massive discounts that never arrive or turn out to be cheap counterfeits.

• Fake Job Offer Scams: Remote job listings that issue a fake check for "home office equipment" and ask the applicant to transfer money back before the check bounces.

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Key Red Flags to Watch For

1. Urgency and Secrecy: Demands to act immediately without consulting family, financial advisors, or bank branch officers.

2. Untraceable Payment Methods: Demands for payment via cryptocurrency kiosks (Bitcoin ATMs), wire transfers, peer-to-peer apps (Zelle, Venmo), or gift cards.

3. Unsolicited Contact: Incoming calls or messages claiming your bank account, computer, or identity is under active threat.

4. Guaranteed High Returns: Any investment opportunity promising risk-free, rapid returns.

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What You Can Do to Mitigate a Scam

    1. Use AI to Screen potential Scams:  Ask AI if the site is legitimate or is likely a scam. If              you are asked to log onto a site, ask AI to log onto the site for you and summarize what is            there 

     

    2. Always Use an Independent Source: To find the telephone number or email address of            an alleged organization that is attempting to contact you. DO NOT use the contact method 

        supplied by them.

    3. Never let Anyone Take Over Control of your Computer Remotely: Unless you are                  absolutely positive that you are dealing with a legitimate source, do not allow anyone to                take remote control of your computer.

    4. Always use a Credit Card to Pay for Transactions: Instead of using untraceable                      methods of payment, a fraudulent transaction on your credit card can always be contested.

   

Variations on Lifeforms

I was walking around my yard today and ran into a few plants that I thought have never seen before. I used my google image finder to discover what they were.  The first one (shown above) is called claytonia perfoliata, or more commonly known as miner's lettuce or winter purslane  It is a flowering plant in the family of Morntiaceae.  I have now read up all about it, and it does have green leaves, and it was the green leaf variety that I have seen before, but those leaves and stems will turn this strange pinkish yellow color if there is too much sun and a lack of water.  They are edible, but I will pass on tasting it this time.  It is an annual plant native to the western mountain and coastal regions of North America.

Below, another plant, only a few feet away, is shown below.  It is called pterospora andromedea, also commonly known as woodland pinedrops or giant pinedrops.  They appear as a tall redish-purple plant

that often resembles emerging asparagus spears.  It produces a cluster of small, nodding, bell-shaped flowers that can range in color from white to creamy-yellow or reddish. The stems are noticeably sticky to the touch due to glandular hairs that excrete a sticky substance.  Pinedrops lack chlorophyll and therefore cannot perform photosynthesis. This gives them their non-green, "ghostly" appearance. 

Pinedrops are mycoheterotrophic plants. Instead of making their own food from sunlight, they derive nutrients through a parasitic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. These fungi are themselves connected to the roots of nearby coniferous trees, typically pine trees

Pinedrops are found in moist to dry shaded coniferous or mixed forests across North America.  They are often found in small clusters and may not appear above ground every year, only emerging when environmental conditions are ideal. 

The world is almost infinite in the variations of its life forms.  All we have to do is open our eyes and look around to see this.

Killing Two Birds With One Stone

We decided to install a water fountain in the patio/deck area behind our house.  The reason we made the decision to place the fountain there was because we were being disturbed by a low level din from a highway about a mile away that we could hear, albeit ever so slightly, when we were out on the deck, especially in the evenings. We found the low level highway din very disturbing, to say the least.  The new fountain masked the noise of the highway fairly well.

Shortly after we installed the fountain it started being visited by many varieties of birds: robins, finches, jays, humming birds, crows, etc. and the honey bees from the hives that we also have in the back yard.  We enjoyed all of these visitors, at first.   However, the crows kept coming to the fountain to wash their food, primarily chicken parts, and leaving the bones in the fountain after they were done eating all the meat off them, and they would also scare away the other birds that wanted to share the water.  There was one family of crows that lived in the oak tree about 50 feet from the fountain. That particular crow family was part of a murder of crows that lives in the neighborhood. (Yes, if you didn't already know, a flock of crows is called a murder!)  Together, the crows were taking over the fountain and scaring away the other birds and the bees.

So, in order to keep the crows from coming to the fountain, I installed a small scarecrow immediately above the fountain, attached to a railing.  This didn't seem to phase the crows.  They were still coming on a regular basis to use the fountain as their dinner table, leaving the bones behind.  I escalated, by putting an orange colored college pennant I had into one of the hands of the scarecrow.  This combination of either the orange in the pennant, or possibly the wind making the pennant flap in the wind was too much for the crows to take and they have now departed permenently.  Fortunately, the other birds and the bees could care less about the scarecrow and the pennant and they still come to visit the fountain on a regular basis.

We then noticed that we could still hear a very faint sound of the highway over the sound of the bubbling water in the fountain.  I next purchased a small white noise machine and plugged it in and left it sitting right behind the base of the fountain.  I selected the sound of  a gentle babbling brook from the various choices available and turned up the volume.  It sounds just like the original fountain, but more intense.

So, now it has been almost a month without the crows and I have deemed the scarecrow with the orange pennant waving in the breeze an unqualified success.  I have now looked up why scarecrows behave this way, and have discovered that the moving parts seem to be necessary since the crows are very smart, but not smart enough to understand the moving parts.

US Frigate Constitution Enters San Francisco Bay -- 1933

 

I last posted about "Old Ironsides" on this blog back on Dec. 12, 2013. If you are interested, you may want to look at that blog post by clicking here.  I was going through some old photographs that I have and came across an additional photo that I had inadvertently omitted from that blog.  I thought is was such an interesting photo that I would include it here, at the almost 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation.  It is somewhat of a miracle that this ship, originally constructed over 225 years ago, is still afloat today.  

Of course, this has not been without extensive reconstruction of the ship many times through the years. 

The picture, of course, is of both the USF Constitution and the Golden Gate Bridge while being constructed in 1933.  The occasion of the ship being in San Francisco Bay in 1933, which I might add was over 90 years ago, was part of a tour following the 1927-1931 reconstruction of the ship at the Boston Navy Shipyard.  For the next three years after its reconstruction the ship toured the ports of the coastal states from Boston to Washington and back.  Don't forget that at that time Hawaii and Alaska were not states, and consequently did not get included on the tour.

The ship passed through the Panama Canal in order to get from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, both going to the West Coast and upon it's return.  I just happen to have an image of the ship as it passed through the Panama Canal, but I don't know if this was going West in 1932 or returning East in 1934.

I have collected memorabilia from the USF Constitution for about 40 years now and if you are interested in seeing some of my collection I refer you to my blog on that subject.

Celebrating Joseph Priestley's Birthday - March 24, 1733

This coming March 24th, we will celebrate the 293rd year since the birth of this magnificent person, known by the name of Joseph Priestley, who has contributed so much to our civilization.  He was born to a family of rather ordinary means in Birstall, West Yorkshire, England, in 1733.

Actually, at the time he was born, the Julian calendar was in use in England, and he was born on March 13, 1732. But when England switched to the Gregorian calendar and also started of the new year to January 1st, his birth date was changed to reflect the date we celebrate now.

He would go on to make significant contributions in many diverse fields.  He is viewed by some today as the conscience of our modern way of thinking.  We have extolled his many contributions to humanity in the pages of this blog; should you wish to learn more about him, feel free to browse the many entries about him that we have posted. 

Yet, today, for most, he is a relatively unknown figure of history, or perhaps, only known as the person who first isolated the gas we now know as oxygen.