June 16, 2026

Each State has its own Replica Liberty Bell

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: in 1950 the Treasury commissioned 2,080-pound Liberty Bell replicas for each state as part of a savings bond drive—cast in France with matching markings and a fake crack—touring on flatbed Ford trucks before being given to states; bell hunter Tom has tracked down 40 via tomlovesthelibertybells.com, while the Washington, DC bell has been missing since the early ’80s. Scientists developed a hemp-based plastic alternative that can stretch up to 1,600% and withstand boiling water. Albany, NY is trying to protect its 28-foot, four-ton RCA “Nipper” dog statue atop a long-unused warehouse by adding it to historic landmarks. In Singapore, a teen was charged after licking and returning a vending-machine straw, prompting upgrades to individually packaged straws. In Saskatchewan, tow truck driver Clint rescued a moose frozen in lake ice and it recovered overnight.

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Callaroga Shark Media. Did you know there's a Liberty Bell

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in every state? Hi? I'm a Johnny Mack with five

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good news stories. Yep. Back in nineteen fifty, the Treasury

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Department commissioned exact replicas of the Liberty Bell, one for

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each state that was part of a savings bond drive.

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They were cast by a foundry in France that's been

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making bell since seventeen ninety six. Each one weighs twenty

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eighty pounds, has the same markings as the original, and

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even has a fake crack. The bell's toward the county

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on flatbed four trucks. People bought saving bonds and got

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to ring the bell, and then the Treasury just gave

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him away to the states. There was no instructions on

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what you could do with them. Tom is a bell hunter.

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He's made it his mission to find and visit as

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many of the replicas as possible. He's up to forty.

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He said it was a casual thing that turned into

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an obsession. He's got a website, Tom loves the Liberty

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Bells dot com. He called it just kind of a

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fun goof, but now he's the de facto expert on

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the bells. Some states have restored theirs ahead of the

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two hundred and fiftieth. Kansas's bell spent years disassembled in

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a parking garage before getting a place of honor outside

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of state office building. One of the bells, unfortunately, is gone.

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The Washington d c. Replica went missing from storage in

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the early eighties and has never been found. Tom suspects

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it was melted down for scrap. Good news if you're

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tired of plastic. Scientists have developed a plastic alternative made

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from hemp yep. Hemp, the cannabis plant. Hemp, can stretch

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up to sixteen hundred percent of its size and can

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handle boiling water without breaking down. University of Connecticut professor

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Gregory Satzeng said very few, if any plastics made from

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natural resources of this quality. The hemp based plastic could

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be used for things like water bottles, food packaging, and

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flexible electronics. Hemp is a fast growing weed that needs

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very little water and almost no pesticides. Could be a

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good idea there. In Albany, New York, people are trying

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to figure out what to do with a giant dog statue.

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Nipper is a twenty eight foot tall white dog with

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black ears that been sitting on top of a warehouse

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Albany for almost seventy years. Nipper is the famous RCAA dog.

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You know that one, the one whose head is cocked

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to one side listening to a phonograph. Yep, you've seen

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the image up in Albany. You can buy Nipper socks, hats, stickers, shotglasses.

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Cody said, When I think of Nipper, I think of Albany.

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When I think of Albany, I think of Nipper. The

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problem the building has been unused for over a decade.

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Foreclosures been dragging out for years, and the city recently

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put a red warning on the entrance, the kind of

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tells firefighters use caution going in. Karen Macrey is with

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the Historic Albany Foundation and said it's definitely not a

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good thing for Knipper. He's attached to that building, so

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if something happens to it, it's going to be kind

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of hard to take him off of it. Albany's mayor

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is now trying to get Nipper added to the city's

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list of historic landmarks. What happens from there? Who knows?

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He weighs four tons. Good news if you operate a

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vending machine at Singapore, you're about to get some upgrades.

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See An eighteen year old French student thought it would

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be a good idea to lick a straw from an

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orange juice vending machine at a shopping mall and put

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the straw back. He posted that on social media in Singapore,

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which is probably the worst place to do something like that.

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Singapore is known for limits on things like chewing gum,

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and heavy penalties for littering, and generally zero tolerance for shenanigans.

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The team was charged with mischief and public nuisance. Mischief

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carries up to two years in prison. Nuisance three months

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the vending machine company filed a police report, sanitized the dispenser,

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and replaced all five hundred straws in the machine. And

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now they've announced they're upgrading the machines to include individually

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packaged straws and compartments that only unlock after you complete

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your transaction. In Saskatchewan, a tow truck driver was on

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his way to a call when he spotted a moose

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frozen in the ice of a lake about half a

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mile from his house around five in the afternoon. The

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moose had been stuck there since eight forty five, in

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the morning, Clint made a decision. He called his customers

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and said, you're gonna have to wait. After they heard

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I was digging a moose out of the ice, they

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said no, okay. They were very understanding. Clint packed up

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his truck, lowered the bed, got a sling around the moose,

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winched him right out of the ice and onto the truck.

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He then called his wife with an update and said, honey,

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and get some blankets. I've got a moose. By eleven PM,

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the moose was back on his feet, no longer interested

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in ear scratches. The moose hung around the property until

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the next morning and then headed off, which biologists say

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is totally normal behavior for rescued moose. Those are your

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fucking news stories for today.