Collectors, Share You Heartbreaking Stories

One more...

My dad collected coins, when he passed away since we didn't get along too well, I told my mom to keep them and I'll get them in the future. After a few years my mom no longer wanted them in the house and calls me and asks me what to do. I told her to keep the silver coins and anything old. She asked about the quarters in the albums, I knew my dad had a State Quarter set, so I told her, you can spend those, they aren't worth anything. A few days later she calls me and says "didn't you say that coins before 1964 had value?", I say Yes.. She goes stop by I found a few more.

I get there and never realized that my dad had more than what I knew about. While going through everything I found a half roll of silver quarters. As I was packing up the coins my mom goes "I cashed in all the quarters, your dad had about $40 in total", I reply "That's great". She goes he had the book of quarters and 2 rolls, I cashed in the nice ones, the ugly ones are in the roll I left".

I have no evidence but my mom may have cashed in $15 of silver quarters. Again my fault for not following up.

My only horror story about ruining a coin was back when I purchased a 1921S Lincoln Cent in MS-65 grade in a 2x2 flip. I attempted to remove the staples with a screwdriver and it slipped and ran across Lincoln's face.