Four Pianos and One Coin

1. When I was a kid we had an antique upright grand piano, it's at my Dad's house and I'm the only kid in the family that plays. Someday (a very, very long time from now) it may reside at my house.

2. My Grandmother told me she would like me to have her grand piano. Her Father bought it for her for Christmas sometime in the 30s. It's magnificently tuned and maintained. Again, I hope it's a very, very long time before it gets to my house.

3. My Mom has an antique oak upright grand piano she inherited from the neighborhood that is in her summer home garage waiting for me to hire some movers and get it up here for restoration. It's beautiful, has a good sound and is very old, I just need to get motivated enough to get it here and restore it.

4. My Dad called three days ago because his neighbor was moving and couldn't take his piano. My Dad and my brother could bring it over in a half an hour, but I needed to decide that minute. I said yes because at that moment I had no pianos at my house.

My Dad and I spent all afternoon on Sunday disassembling an antique Lindeman and Sons upright grand piano. We took all the keys out replaced some of the felts found some lost hardware in the bottom by the pedals, wrote down the serial number, vacuumed all the gunk out, fixed two sticky keys and made a list of things that need professional care (three ivories, one hammer and a tuning.) I hadn't planned on taking a piano apart but my Dad knows just the right thing to say to motivate me and on Sunday that right thing was "It's a really old piano, we could find gold coins or something under the keys, who knows what kind of things kids stuff in a piano." We found, two crayons orange and green, a hair pin, a few lucky charms, some maple tree twirly birds, a half inch of dust and dirt, three oily rags, broken piano wire and a single coin.

It looks to be a brass McKinley commemorative coin and I found one thing about it on the internet, though not very helpful. It is not the McKinley gold dollar nor is it the McKinley bronze medal, though it is more similar to that than the gold dollar. I'll be in the city on Thursday and I'll take it over to the coin shop and see if they can find out anything about it. Cross your fingers.

More exciting is the serial number on the piano - #129346, according to this the piano was made before 1917. Again cross your fingers for me because who knows what it'll cost to have it tuned and the hammer repaired and some pianos can't be tuned as the strings won't take the tightening without snapping. I will probably restore the three key tops myself as the parts are about $17.00 apiece for the imitation ivory and I found this and am holding out a small hope that after restoration it'll be worth a small fortune.

So, if anyone can tell me anything about a 57" Upright Grand Lindeman and Sons Piano made in Ney York with tiger oak veneer and a serial number 129346 or a McKinley coin with the words "Little Mack" on the back, please let me know.