December 14, 2009: "The Refrigerator"

Author:
D. Wnuck

Concept:
We always find it interesting to put coins in their historical context, namely by imagining the state of the world in the year in which they were struck.

What important events were taking place? What titanic struggles gripped the planet? Who were the great leaders of the time? And, perhaps most importantly, which kitchen appliances were being patented?

I gotta’ admit, this one surprised us, as both Dave and I would have guessed the refrigerator was an early 20th century device. Which made this precisely the sort of bizarre and unexpected Fun Fact which is very nearly perfect for a CRO ad.

Captions that didn’t make the cut:
We considered making a reference to another significant event in 1803 with "Might have been used to purchase Louisiana." (referring, of course, to the notion that this very coin might have been part of the payment for the Louisiana Purchase in that year).

But this got a little complicated, since the transaction was actually in French Francs, and the purchase was not of Louisiana per se.

Which is why we went with the ‘refrigerator’ version instead.