An overdue book has been returned to a library…119 years late.
Stunned librarians said the returned item not only had the original library pocket with its rules but also the card from 1904.
It was taken out eight years before the Titanic sank and ten years before WW1 started.
The novel, ‘The Cruise of the Esmeralda’ by Harry Collingwood, originally published in 1894, was spotted at a local book sale.
A staff member at Hawley Public Library in Pennsylvania, US, noticed the OLD library card and duly returned it to their counterparts at Carbondale Public Library, 20 miles away.
The book still has the original pocket, a list of the library’s rules, and a card issued to one Horace Short.
According to the Carbondale Library, the book was checked out for 43,641 days.
The overdue item would have amassed a fine of £694 ($872.82) at the 1904 rate of 2 cents a day.
Alternatively, at the current rate of 25 cents per day, the book would have accrued a fine of £8,669 ($10,910.25).
However, the library said: “Mr. Short is very lucky we currently cap fines for books at $10.”
Carbondale Library also thanked their counterparts in Hawley for spotting the book and returning it to them.
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