Do you know what the bell now known as “The Liberty Bell” and Louisiana have in common?

Well, the Liberty bell was cast in the White-chapel Foundry in the East End of London. It was sent to the building currently known as Independence Hall, then the Pennsylvania State House, in 1752.

It was an impressive looking object, 12 feet in circumference around the lip with a 44-pound clapper. Unfortunately, the clapper would crack the bell on its first use.

From 1753 till 1777, the bell, despite its crack, rang mostly to call the Pennsylvania Assembly to order. However, by the 1770s, the bell tower had started rotting, and some felt ringing the bell might cause the tower to topple.

Thus, the bell was probably not rung at all to announce the signing of the Declaration of Independence or even to call people to hear its first public reading on July 8, 1776.

Still, officials considered it valuable enough to move, with 22 other large Philadelphia bells, to Allentown in September 1777, so that the invading British forces would not confiscate it. It was returned to the State House in June 1778.

Once it was no longer used as a working bell, especially in the years after the Civil War, the Liberty Bell’s symbolic position strengthened.

It started going on what were essentially barnstorming patriotic trips, mostly to World Fairs and similar international expositions, where the United States wanted to show off its best wares and celebrate its national identity.

The first trip was in January 1885, on a special railroad flatcar. It would make 14 stops along the way to the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans.

Louisiana cast a coin or token to commemorate the occasion. Pennsylvania also cast a coin to commemorate the trip of the Liberty Bell to New Orleans. About 21 ago, I came across a coin in an old house, but never gave it much thought.

About ten years later, I bought some old coins at an estate sale in Mississippi. One of the coins was from Pennsylvania. Not knowing the history of the coins, I put them on the side for years. After building the museum for the various collections and antiques that I had stored in my shed, I started to ask questions about these coins.

After researching and several phone calls to Pennsylvania, I discovered that I had the two coins that were cast for the Liberty Bell and the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans.

The chances of finding the two coins cast in 1885, from different states, for the same exposition is nothing short of a miracle. The coins will be back on display at the Louisiana Treasures Museum after all repairs have been made to the building following the great flood of 2016.

Lt. Wayne Norwood is a retired Lieutenant from St. John the Baptist Sheriff’s Office and the owner and operator of the Louisiana Treasures Museum. For more information call 225-294-8352.