Man discovers rare flag

A southeast Iowa man has a valuable U-S flag in his truck. Robert Coon of Morning Sun discovered a rare “Great Star Flag” that may be 125 years old.Coon found it in some family belongings, wrapped around a broken flag pole, but says he doesn’t know how long it’s been around or where it came from.Coon, who’s 70, had the flag mounted on acid-free paper and put in a frame with special glass to preserve it. He carries the flag around in his truck to show it off, but hopes to have it on exhibit somewhere, someday.Coon’s flag has one large star surrounded by 33 smaller stars. It wasn’t ’til the 1920s when a standard design was adopted for the field of stars on the U-S flag. Appraisers at the “Antiques Roadshow” recent stop in Des Moines told Coon the flag was worth about three hundred dollars.