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 It is more fun to read this page after you have read the book!
The Mystery of the Ancient Coins
Another treasure found in a closet! This square of crazy quilt was sewn by my great grandmother around 1890. She made many of these squares, intending some day to sew them together into a quilt. Imagine how much work went into each square. The quilt piece inspired me to write a second mystery, this time based on my mother's family, who left Germany in 1849 and came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
What's Real and What's Not
The drawer with the secret compartment? Definitely real! I actually have an old chest of drawers with a secret compartment like this. There is a false bottom and underneath is a small space. It makes me wonder what was hidden there in the past.
 The coins?
I don't own any, but yes, rainbow cup coins are real. (And the drawing in the book is of real coins.) I was looking for a type of ancient coin to use for my story. As soon as I read about the golden, saucer-shaped rainbow cup coins, I knew they would be a perfect treasure for my mystery. They were made by the Celtic people around 2,000 years ago. The name comes from a superstition that the coins dropped from the end of a rainbow. In southern Germany, farmers used to find them when plowing their fields. In 1859, a large hoard of more than a thousand of these coins was found in Irsching, Germany. Some of the coins were given to the nearby city of Ingolstadt. Many of the coins were melted down and used to make new coins. Some of the coins were sold and have been lost. Who knows? Maybe, just like the make-believe coins in my book, they are hidden in some secret place waiting to be found.
Look up "coins" or "ancient coins" in your library catalogue to find out more.
The old German writing?
Can you guess what this writing says? Probably not. (Scroll down to the bottom if you want the answer.) What I said about the old German writing is true. There are styles of German writing called "alt deutsche Schrift" (old German script) or "Suetterlinshrift." This writing hasn't been taught in schools since the late 1930's, and it is very difficult even for Germans to read if they went to school after 1940. Many old letters, family records, and diaries are written in this old script. Luckily, there are memory keepers who can still read the old-style writing and are teaching others to do so. The internet has many sites explaining the old German script and The Moravian Archives, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, gives courses on the old writing.(The sample is from one of their fliers.)
A real treasure
Johanna Obermeyer's diary in my story is make-believe, but here's a real-life treasure. (This was reported in the Beloit Daily News.)
In Wisconsin, the Oshkosh Public Museum was given a set of letters written in the old German script. The letters were written by a German who came to America and later fought as a Union soldier in the Civil War. The museum found someone to decipher the old script and translate the letters into English. The letters tell what it was like to be a Civil War soldier. The writer described his clothing, his food, his surroundings, and his feelings about being a soldier. We can be thankful to the family which kept these letters for over 100 years and donated them to the museum!
Do you have any questions or comments about the book?
E-mail the author 
Background about The Puzzle in the Portrait
top of page
Answer to old writing: It is written in the old style and says "Deutsche Schrift" (German writing)
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