Flea Market - Great Finds!

So I was in FL over the Christmas season to visit my In-Laws and other family who flew.

Long story short, I went to a flea market on a Saturday. Along the last row of venders I see a pile of mint sets, a bucket of foreign coins (typical large pile and inexpensive prices), and a 3 ring folder.

I glance at the folder that is opened to a page of common date Buffalo nickels and almost move on. But I decided to stop and look.

The first page has foreign coins in 2X2s. As has been my experience, especially during pre-internet days and maybe not so much now, Canadian coins are not sought after as aggressively as where I used to live up near the border.

I have put my Canada collection to the back burner a little in the last year as I have been working on other projects. I knew I did not have a couple of the early cents, including some common ones. I actually found myself trying to remember which small cents were the keys to the series as I saw a 1925 and 1926 inside the binder... with no prices on them (no help there!).

No mobile internet access at the time, no idea what the prices were so I ask what the price is.

The guy takes them out and looks at them through a loupe. Afterwards I found out he was trying to read the very faded price on the 2X2s. He had had these for a looong time.

He said the price was too faded to see and to make him an offer. Honesty is the best policy. So I told him my thoughts. I knew I was missing some of the older ones of the series including some keys, but really has no idea what these were worth.

He asked me, "How about a buck each?"

I took the gamble.

Later that night when I finally got to a place to look these up, I was floored!

I found out that not only was I going to be able to fill some holes, but also that I got a couple very hard to get pennies for my set. Now I want to go get my set, find the other holes, and fill them. I think I only need 2 or 3 more. I also should look into finishing the other holes off and also take a refresher course on the dates/keys/values!

I admit the one downside to this is that had I known the value of these, I would have made a legit offer to him.

I have these posted in the Canadian grading forum to get an idea of value - but I know its a lot more than 1.00












edited b/c pics did not work the first time around