February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Briody is yet to set his eyes on an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, but he not infrequently comes across curious relics from an earlier time.
“We tend to mostly find old bottles or coins,” he said.
But his latest discovery was a little more unusual.
As he was looking for a space to insert an electrical wire, one of Briody’s colleagues, John Bartoni, discovered an old coffee tin about six inches in diameter that had been placed atop a basement ceiling board. The tin was opened to reveal an asbestos container. The lid of this inner container was then carefully removed. Inside was a glass wax sealed container about two inches long.
When this third container was unsealed, the renovators pulled out a rolled up Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes ticket.
“The paid receipt of ten shillings, with the name and address of the purchaser, was also in the vial,” Briody said.
The man who bought the ticket, dated 1937, was a William G. Baringer.
“Needless to say, it was one unusual and exciting discovery that led to a discussion about what the value of the ticket was, how to split the winnings, and why the hell would someone go to all the trouble to hide and protect the ticket and receipt in the old coffee tin,” Briody said.
Briody was aware that sweeps tickets were once sold in the back room of an Allentown hotel.
The sweeps, though legal and backed by the government in Ireland, was illegal in the U.S. and Canada. But that didn’t stop millions of Americans and Canadians buying tickets during the course of the lottery’s lifetime, which ran from 1930 until its official disestablishment in 1987.
“Just the fact that this ticket had been so carefully hidden made it particularly interesting,” Briody said.
The ticket, which is in excellent condition with its watermark clearly visible, indicated a top prize at the time of