The History of Uncle Scrooge's #1 Dime

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Money, Madness, and The # 1 Dime

Alright…John Rockerduck and the history of Scrooge's #1 dime, I'm gonna kill two birds with one stone on this, cause the two go hand in hand…

Now, here's a guy that Scrooge has no idea, is in any way connected to his beloved #1 dime. And also a character you don't see in America often…he was created by Carl Barks, and he was only been used once in America….however, in Europe, esp. Italy and France, John Rockerduck is Scrooge's #1 enemy, and he is used in more stories than the Beagle Boys are. In America he is thought of as the world's third richest duck, an oil tycoon that inherited all of his wealth, from his rich father Howard Rockerduck (only ever used once). Unknown to both Scrooge and John Rockerduck, the #1 dime was once part of the Rockerduck estate…

a typical scene of Scrooge and (John) Rockerduck fighting it out.

Unknown to both Scrooge and John Rockerduck, the #1 dime was once part of the Rockerduck estate…

Howard Rockerduck is the wealthy American who came to Scotland in 1877 and threw a handful of coins from the window of his buggy to a group of children playing in the streets—one of those coins was a 1875 American dime, that was about to make history when it would change hands two more times, and become forever known as the #1 dime…

Here we see that event unfold…this is the only story in which we ever see John Rockerduck's father, Howard Rockerduck…Magica de Spell, has cast a spell taking her back in time to Scrooge's childhood, in hopes of stealing the dime, before he became obsessed with keeping it…in this picture she and another tourist take a taxi cab to Glasgow, when she spies a group of small children playing, she asks the cab to stop in hopes that the young Scrooge is one of those children. While stopped the rich American wishing to impress Magica, throws a handful of coins out the window to the children. One of those coins is picked up by a little girl who in turn runs to give it to her father…

Magica, having seen the coin a hundred times before recognizes it as Scrooge's dime an chases the girl, than tries to steal the coin from the girl's father…big mistake… (to be continued)

Magica, having seen the coin a hundred times before recognizes it as Scrooge's dime an chases the girl, than tries to steal the coin from the girl's father…big mistake…

The girl turns out to be Scrooge's sister Matilda, she gives the dime to her father Fergus McDuck, who comes up with a scheme to have a ditch-digger pay the dime to Scrooge…a lesson in being careful with business deals…but Magica, takes the dime first, resulting in a chase across town…once Fergus gets the dime back, he than gives it to a ditch digger who is to give it to Scrooge for having his shoes-shined…Scrooge always had a temper and angry at the man, vowed to never be cheated again, and to himself all ways do business honestly (sadly as he got older, he forgot this vow and turned to cruel and hateful means of getting wealth-which resulted in a fight with his family, and his disowning to whole lot of them in a spiteful rage)

There is a combination of 4 pictures here (I edited out "un-nessacary" panels, for the sake of clarity)

We see Magica, taken the dime from Matilda, who takes it back, and in turn gives it to her father. A 2 page chase/fight is not shown here, which is followed by Fergus taking the dime back. More panels are edited out, and than Fergug gived the dime to the ditch-digger, telling him to get his shoes shined and use the dime as payment.

Than the final 2 panels, I took from the first chapter of "Life & Times", which is when we see the 10 year old Scrooge the first time he sees the dime.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Three years later, Scrooge leaves for America, and then from America the teenaged Scrooge goes on to Australia…where we see for the first time, a true parinoia connected with the dime, that would later result in a crazed maddness

The "lesson"…Scrooge's family had no money, life was hard on them, and Fergus didn't believe in getting anything "the easy way", he preached hard work, hard work, and more hard work…in a panel not shown hear is what Fergus said…

"I want him to earn his first pay on a tough job, so he'll learn a lesson about hard work! When burt pays him that useless American dime, he'll learn to no be so trutin'!"

Apearently, unlike the old Scrooge who trusts no one, the young Scrooge trusted everyone, and his father believed that to be a bad thing. Also it must be remembered that the whole history of the dime was written by Don Rosa, based on the notes and stories of Carl Barks…Barks never explained how Scrooge became so mean and untrusting of people, although, from many flashbacks when Scrooge talked of his past, he had a very hard life, and was basicly alone thoughout nearly 70 years of his life…When chonicalizing Carl Barks facts, Don Rosa, realized that Scrooge didn't always tell the truth, he made things far better or far worse than they where, and when it can to his childhood, he would rarely speak of it at all, changing the subject instead, saying he wanted to forget it. It was also known that he got the dime at age ten from a shoe-shinning job, and that that one event had such an effect on his mind that he never was able to get over it. And so it seemed logical that it was Scrooge's own father that had been harsh and cynical, and the #1 dime was a lesson to trust no one and look at the darker side of people.

"The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" has been discribed as a "dark story", it is very unlike other stories by Disney, in that it is rarely cheerful, and takes you throught life as it is, as it was seen first by a small boy sent out to work to support his family, and teenager who left home because a father had dreams of wealth and put that burden on his son, a young man who wanted to return home and clung dearly to letters from his mother, letters that where than stolen buy a criminal—and the story of "The King of The Klondike" is where we see a major turn in Scrooge…a mean streak that never went away after…one the way home from the post office he was captured and beaten by Soapy Slick, a friend of Goldie's (as I said-Goldie started out a villian), the letter that Scrooge never read, was read to the town by Slick—the first and only letter from his father, saying simply that Scrooge's mother was dead. A casino full of ridicul at the death of his beloved mother, who he haddn't seen since his childhood, turned Scrooge into a very mean and hateful wild-fire. From that point on we see an end of the young Scrooge full of joy and happiness, and we see a progressivly meaner Scrooge as the book goes on. He has learned his father's lesson all to well—to trust no one, but Scrooge is pushed beyond that, to hate everyone, and he holds on the the dime as a reminder of that.

For a short while, Scrooge's atitude changes—he falls in love with Goldie, and intends to marry her, but Goldie is ever the wild-cat and she and Scrooge have one last fight that results in the town being set on fire and the police chaseing down Scrooge, who flees the Yukon territory…now also hateing the only person he ever loved-Goldie, and vowing to never love anyone again as long as he lives…saying that the only constant thing in life in gold/money, and sets out to prove that he is better that the lot of them, by building an empire like nothing the world has ever seen, and not caring who he trampled to do it. The one thing he still had going for him was his 2 sisters, who after their father's death, moved to America to live with Scrooge. But a trip to Africa with Scrooge setting fire to a village and burning hundreds of families out of their homes resulted in a feud between Scrooge and his sister's and even they would have nothing to do with him. Years of more thing happening, each making Scrooge hate everyone even more, go by, until final in his late 60's he retuns home to live with his money. The sister's are there to great him, one of who intoduces Scrooge to her som Donald (about 4 or 5 years old), Scrooge by this time is so full of hate that he acusses them of being their to ask for money (which was the only time family ever talked to Scrooge-when they needed money), they tried to end the fued, but Scrooge refussed to listen and set them away, saying he never wanted to see family again. They left and never came back. And the next 15 or so years Scrooge spend alone, looked up in a house near the Money Bin, refussing to speak to anyone.

For people used to reading Disney's traditional "fluff and pixie dust" Scrooge stories—"Life and Times" is a real eye-opener. What it amounts to is 211 pages of sheer hell and heartbreak, and explains the reason why Scrooge is Scrooge. It is not your typical Uncle Scrooge story.

howd the nick get in the dime?

It is said that Scrooge can identify his #1 dime by it's sharp edge on one side, however it appears that Don Rosa made a mistake here because Scrooge also said that the edge got worn by his always carrying it with him.

(to be continued...)

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May 14, 2007 @ 7:54 pm

EXCELLENT!! Good work. Keep it up.

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The History of Uncle Scrooge's #1 Dime

Money, Madness, and The # 1 Dime

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