Lame Claim To Numismatic Fame, Post Yours!

Back in the mid-1990s I walked up to an unfamiliar coin dealer at a big show and started looking through his foreign coins without appreciating what I was looking at. I asked to see an old French coin that caught my eye, a quart du Ecu in nice shape with typical Paris mint mark. I though, Yes I want this and asked the price figuring it might be reasonable. He looked at me expectantly and said "I want twenty-eight...Thousand Dollars" and smiled..."OK, I thought as my jaw dropped and the room began to spin just a little bit. I handed it back to him and slunk away, not realizing I had held a 1670-A quince sols de l'Amerique Francoise, a Red Book-listed colonial so rare it doesn't have a picture in the Red Book. I confused it with a common quart du ecu of Paris intended for plebian French use. The dealer was Julian Leidman. I later got to know he is a major player in high-end rare coins. Thank goodness I didn't drop it handing it back.

Hate to keep this zombie thread going, but it's one of my favorites. Another "lame" claim, just sold a coin to Rick Tomaska. Maybe he'll keep this one since it's in an NGC holder.

I've found some pretty rare coins in mixed ebay lots, the equivalent of an online junk bin. My rarest and most special include:

- French 10 centimes contemporary counterfeit "1810-A", a combination that does not actually exist. Purchased in a lot of like 20 coins for $5.

- Extremely rare bronze as of Herod Antipas, said to be one of the most difficult Biblical coins to acquire. Lot of about 15 coins for $25.

- Very scarce bronze of the short-lived Roman Emperor Galba, in a lot of 75 coins for $50.

I am also working on the Internet's most complete free guide to the Indian silver coins called Gadhaiya Paisa.

I was 16 years old and in NYC. I saw a sign that indicated a coin shop, so I went in. The proprietor introduced himself and asked me what I was interested in looking at. He just had some offices, not really a shop, and he told me he usually just meets clients by appointment, but he'll make an exception for me. He showed me around the place, showed me some Walkers and other coins, spoke with me for a while and then I left. It was years later I saw his name in the Red Book and realized he was a pretty big deal. His name was Lester Merkin.

I have the SECOND biggest collection of modern machine struck square coins in the World. 82 different types and counting.

A guy in Denmark has the biggest.

Almost all of them came from dealers' junk boxes.

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I have also had a brush with numismatic fame.

I have shared ideas with Stuart Devlin, who is responsible for all but one of the definitive designs of Australian Decimal Coinage. These designs have be in continuous production for more than 50 years.
The bronze One and Two Cent designs are his also, but these denominations have been withdrawn from circulation.

Didn't you discover the first Homestead DDR Child?

Unfortunately it was the second specimen of the DDR-004... I was the first person to own one though.

Ken Bressett