Thanks, Ned.  I really like it when entirely practical people such as
owners of masonry companies engage in symbolic activities.  Doesn't really
matter if they "believe" in the ritual, just that they believe they need to
maintain the ritual.  And so some lore involving material culture never
dies.  Using silver coins at least is more archeologically visible than the
tree branch at the topping out ceremony!

At 08:03 AM 10/29/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>When we were restoring the Delaware State House, the owner of the masonry
>company put a coin in the mortar of the first brick. My first impression
>was that he was inserting a current-year dated coin for the benefit of
>future archaeologists. So I asked, "Current year coin?" He replied that it
>was a SILVER coin. This was after sandwich coins were introduced.
>
>So there must be a magical value to putting silver in the first mortar you
lay.
>
>The gentleman in question was elderly at that time (1975), so he had done
>his apprenticeship between the wars.
>
>  Ned Heite            _(____)_
>  Heite Consulting    /Baby '69|
>  Camden       _===__/88" Land ||  Archaeologists
>  Delaware    | ____ Rover__   ||  do it in
>  19934      [||/ .\_____/ .\__|   square holes.
> _____________  \__/_____\__/____________
> http://home.dmv.com/~eheite
>
>
Leslie C. "Skip" Stewart-Abernathy
Arkansas Archeological Survey