© 1987 Tony Rudd
© 1987 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
When I was a young lad, my brother and I used to play in the attic of my parents’ house. There was a shoebox full of old coins we played shop with — “buying” and “selling” things in the attic from one another. We knew they weren’t real money because they all had a picture of a tree fern on one side and a rainbow on the other, and with the coins bearing different inscriptions.
Many years later, I started reading The URANTIA Book, becoming increasingly inspired by its teachings. Then I remembered, for some strange reason, the coins my brother and I played with, and although not paying much attention to the words inscribed on them then, felt that the ideas in the Book, and the ideas on the coins had something in common.
Delving into the family archives, I came across the coins shown here. They are part of a series of over 50 different coins minted by my great grandfather, Mr. E.W. Cole between 1879 and 1915.
They were designed as advertising tokens — to be used for a 3d. discount in any purchase from “Coles Book Arcade” in Bourke Street, Melbourne, which had over one million books on display, making it one of the largest in the world at that time. He believed in books with a passion, stating that “… to observe, enquire, read and think is the first duty of man.” He never asked people to buy. He encouraged browsing. In some cases people would browse all day in the Arcade and read half a book, returning the following day to finish it. In the meantime he provided them with chairs to make sure they were comfortable in the process!
He knew the value of serving his customers, and took great pains to make sure the Arcade was comfortable, employing a permanent 5 piece string orchestra on the balcony. Conventional, he was not. He advertised, successfully, for a wife in the Melbourne ‘Herald’, producing 6 little Coles as a result, my grandmother included. Insightful, he was, particularly as to the value of knowledge and truth which was available through books.
“It is books,” he said, “that will relieve a man of his weary hours, enable him to pass his time pleasantly, and whilst enriching his mind with wisdom, which cannot fail to be of intrinsic value to him in every phase and condition of life here, will also serve as capital in the next stage of existence. I idolize them for their unparalleled value as an agency, helping mankind to higher destinies. They are the channel through which the influence flows that makes the difference between the wise and, well — the otherwise.”
Had The URANTIA Book been available 50 years earlier, I think it would have been prominently displayed in the Arcade!
