Buddy Found An 1805 Quarter And ...........

This is great, I've got a long weekend visiting family in Illinois and Mom has internet access. heheheh

Anyhoo, I figured I'd pass this story along.

I know many people who collect coins keep it quiet for fear of getting ripped off but I live in a small town where home invasion isn't a big problem. Not exactly Mayberry but my budget is really small so I don't have much of anything to justify any interest in risking getting busted for stealing it so I feel safe for the most part in talking about collecting and boring the britches off about anyone who will fake an interest for half a minute. Consequently it's become known by a lot of people that I have an interest in coins and some have asked me questions if they have anything they think might be interesting or worth a buck or two.

So anyway, heres the story. About two weeks ago a guy at work came up to me and said his wife had inherited a set of silverware and some old coins from her grandmother about ten years ago and they were cleaning out a closet and found the box. He remembered that silver had taken a jump a while back and was wondering what the silverware was worth and, by the way, this coin was in the box. I took what looked to be a quarter, no flip or anything, and found myself looking at, yup, a quarter........over 200 years old. A really unnaturally clean 1805 quarter. You guessed it, buddy said he had to use some toothpaste on it and rub really hard to get it cleaned up to shine like that (looking pretty pleased with himself for doing such a nice job of it too LOL). I didn't have the heart to tell him how bad he had messed up but I did mention that people pay more for coins that hadn't been cleaned and that he should keep the toothpaste away from them.

Thats pretty much the kicker. I ran home at lunch and drug back my copy of the RedBook and photograde as well as a couple of relevant books and we looked up his quarter which turned out to be no biggie but very cool to see something that old. He has since brought in some other coins and we've had some fun looking them up but so far all he has found are pretty common stuff. I don't know if he's been bitten by the bug yet but I know he seems to have an interest in finding out about what he has. He was all keen on getting that quarter on ebay and turning a profit but he seems to have since had a change of heart. heheheh I guess time will tell.