What Was The Worst Rookie Coin Mistake You Ever Made?

As a kid, on holidays, birthdays, etc., I'd get a Morgan or Peace dollar from my grand dad and others. What did I do? I deposited them them in the bank because "that's where they keep YOUR money safe and pay you some interest." There were lots of tears shed the day I went in and asked to see MY money. We're probably talking about a hundred of them, and I'm pretty sure at least one CC.

So that was centuries ago. Lately? I've opted not to return one obviously cleaned coin and regretted it ever since. I now know that if I don't absolutely love a coin at first sight, I never will.

This isn't a mistake, but an interesting story. I was talking to a guy that owned a small deli in St. Louis many years ago and he told of an old lady giving back a coin he had given her in change, because it wasn't a dime. He looked at it and realized it was a quarter eagle. How that old lady didn't realize what she had still amazes me.

I thought it would be a great way to make money/neat set to buy PCGS Proof 69 DCAM State Quarters. I got to about 10 of them and decided to sell them at my local coin shop. The guy laughed and said he wouldn't be able to sell them. Several dealers at coin shows also said no way. I sold some of them for a 75% loss, but still have the complete 2008 set as a reminder of what "not to do".

I also paid $7 for 2 NJ gold plated State Quarters.

I bought a 1986 Statue of Liberty Proof Silver Dollar from a bargain bin that was covered in green PVC.
The fields still had a green tinge after the acetone bath. Yeah, I got it for melt value, but...

Thought I would bump this thread for the newer members (like me)


I bought a 1986 Silver Panda for $55.00 to back fill my new Panda collection.

I traded one Morgan dollar I got from my grandfather after he passed that had unbelievable toning on it for an MS Peace dollar and a silver quarter. I really wish I didn't do that!

Well, back in October 2010, I went to a coin market with around $150 of money in my pocket.
I returned back with a lot of junk that was worth hardly half what I paid for it, and most importantly without a lovely (but teensy) gold coin offered for $40 (never ever seen a gold coin that wasn't some kind of fanam fraction so cheap anymore, and probably never will - the price of gold shot up right after, and didn't come back anywhere near even to this day).

Another one was a few months later, when I bought an ugly (not really low grade, just really beat up) Walker half and an AU-or-so Eisenhower dollar, at $30+ for both
I also bought (from the same guy - he's decent guy, it's just an overpriced shop in general) a FR-2 (or so) Peace dollar that was labelled 1921, only to find out well after I bought it that it was actually a common 1923 (as I found out later, 1923-S, but still common)... then again, I only paid something like $25 for it, so wasn't really a loss.

And finally... remember the "overpriced shop" comment? These guys offered a bunch of apparently-common (and seemingly not very high grade either - VF at most) Mercury dimes for something like $20 each (these were still there when I visited that shop last week, well over two years later). So when I saw, at another place, an 1943 Mercury in VF for $7, I thought "wow, what a bargain" and bought it immediately I then, a few weeks later, bought an 1945-S in XF for $5 and made a mental effort to think that it was my only Merc (i.e. I didn't want to remember the other one at all).
This one kind of has a good ending... fast forward to December 2012. A guy is offering an 1917-S Mercury dime for around $13. I think "hey, I've heard early Mercs are valuable, and this one looks really good" and buy it. Turns out to be even better than the 1945-S (still XF, but a higher shade of it); and Numismedia FMV for the date is $14 in XF-40 (and I'm fairly sure mine is slightly better).

I cleaned wheat pennies with Brasso because it "made them shiny". I also washed all of my coins with soap and water before I put them in my album. Sometimes I even used a nail brush to keep them clean! At least I wasn't buying anything too expensive or nice back then.