Eureka Indentation (The stuff on this webpage was mentioned on page 224 in my book.)

It's a mystery!I never did figure out about why the word Eureka was dented into the paper that was wrapped around the 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent and the heart necklace? If you have a cool theory, please explain it below.

magnifying glass

Book 1

Mystery, mice, and money at the end of fifth grade!

Read
from my book

read some
Reviews

back to the
Genius List

Back to list Back to top Next thing on my list

Comments from my Readers & Friends

  1. Maybe her sister was excited about writing to Ms. Prott and decided to write EUREKA on the outside. But she was so excited she pressed down on the envelope so hard, when she was writing EUREKA!!! And she didn’t notice she had indented the envelope until after she had done it.

  2. Has anyone realized that Glenora Jean Prott now lives in “Eureka” Avenue? Maybe G.J. in the previous letter asked, “What neighborhood should I move to? Only secretly write it so no enemies can read the street of my new house.” That way the sister would have replied, “Eureka” in a secret way.

    1. That is VERY imaginative, but I don’t think a nice, old lady like Glenora Jean Prott had enemies.

  3. Sorry,forgot the book. Had to re-read. Starting over:REWIND REWIND REWIND…
    Maybe it was written in Europe (close to Eureka)and they wrote it to someone like you back then. Never know. Anyways,I still think it was just a prank to one of their friends back then or so. Plus, Eureka Avenue now gives me an eerie feeling everytime I go down it for some reason…like somebody is watching me as I drive down the road…

    1. Eureka is nowhere close to Europe. You have a good imagination, but it sounds farfetched to me.

  4. I think Eureka was indented because it was all just a little prank. Obviously,Eureka is something someone says when they have an idea,and maybe they were saying “Eureka! I’m going to pull a prank on the Mac & Cheese boy! (No offence)” And,like me,I write while I talk so while he/she was saying “Eureka” they accidently indented it in. Seems legit to me.

  5. maybe when they (the prott sisters) were younger they made up a secret language and it was oppisits so eureka ment something bad, like someone was dying.(g. j. protts sister)

  6. I think that the Eureka was in that letter because it was to make kids think that they had found some kind of treasure to make you rich.

    1. How could that be? The letter was written over 70 years ago. And how could they know it would be kids who’d find it?

  7. i think that since there is actually a place in california called eureka, the letter must have been mailed from there, probably for the emotional reason.

  8. I’m pretty sure it was either for the street name or to finish the coin collection.*

    *It could of meant ‘Eureaka! this coin finishes your coin collection!’ from g.j.protts sister. but since glenora lost it, she replaced it.

    1. I never thought of it being about finishing the collection. Wow! Good idea.

    1. Yeah, maybe…but why wouldn’t the house number be next to the street name?

  9. it means i have found it.there was this one guy who didn’t know how to measure mass so he slated (that’s a made up word. it’s a combo of slid and sat) in the bath tub and he notited how the water went up. so he rinted(that’s a mix between ran and sprinted)yelling eureka without putting his pirt (that’s a combo between shirt and pants)back on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  10. maybe Ms.Prott’s sister indented Eureka so’d she would remember the street but she indented it so no one else would know the street but she accidentally stuck it in the envelope.

    1. Someone wrote that more than 50 years before I was born! It wasn’t a message for…for sure!

  11. hello? eureka avenue? writing adress last? first put stuff in the letter. second close the envelope. last fill out info.

    1. I think it could happen in any order. People can address an envelope first or last.

  12. i think (well i know) that the envalop (sorry dont know how to spell)says eurka because tit was sent from a place called Eureka

  13. My theory is that June or shall I say Goon indented the letters on the paper to prank Cheesie and Georgie somehow. As for the penny she probably found it in her closet and put it in there just for a joke.

    1. Nope, couldn’t be. The envelope was never out of our possession. Goon could not have done that. She’s tricky, but not in this case.

  14. I think maybe when she was looking for a new house she had a peice of paper on top of the envelope and wrote EUREKA on it to remember what street it was on….

    1. That’s very clever…except she already lived in the house on Eureka Street. The envelope was addressed there.

    1. Not exactly. That’s not what it MEANS. Eureka means (in Greek)…”I have found it.” I think what you meant to say was, “It’s what you SAY when you discover something new and you’re so excited.”

  15. Maybe It was put there for a reason like a love note,because a heart is love,or maybe a strong bond supporting a low-on-money friend.
    or it couldve been rejected and rubbed off if you mark if hard enough.

  16. Well the letter was sent form California, and “Eureka!” is the California state motto. I should know. I live there.

    1. That’s true about the motto, but that doesn’t explain why it was punched into the blank paper.

  17. i think that it is because one of georgie’s parent didn’t want anyone to know what that part said.

  18. Eureka is California’s motto, and it’s the street name, too, right? So maybe she just wrote it there for a lot of reasons.
    Your website is really cool!

  19. Maybe, someone who knew her sister had connections to someone from the California gold rush mines. San Francisco came from an old boomtown, didn’t it?

  20. I think that maybe when Ms. Prott’s sister was writing the note, she had the extra piece of blank paper under the note she wrote to Ms. Prott. Since you never saw the note the sister wrote, you don’t know what she had written. She may have said something about Eureka, and it had indented through the paper. That is my theory.

    1. That is very clever analysis. I like the theory. Lots of times I write on a pad and press hard enough to make a dent in the page below. Cool!

    1. I don’t think this is a “duh” question. The word was pressed into the paper that was inside the envelope. So it must’ve been written by someone other than G.J. Prott. Sure, it might refer to her street, but why?

  21. Well… she did live on Eureka Avenue… so… maybe she… wrote her street just in case? :/

  22. Maybe Ms. Prott wrote the adress down so that if she lost it and a person found it they would go to Eureka Ave.

  23. maybe had to do with the sister being excited about the penny or maybe back in those days you had to put the address on the inside of the envelope.

    1. Those are two good theories. I never heard about “inside the envelope,” but maybe… I’ll ask Granpa.

Comments are closed.

Welcome to CheesieMack.com (My real name is Ronald Mack)