| Author |
 Replies: 18 / Views: 3,745 |
|
Valued Member
204 Posts |
Going to have some fun. If you know a person (directly or through some degree of separation) who has a very rare or unique coin. It does not have to be a coin you actually saw. It can even be a bit of a 'rumor'. For example I recall a rumor from a buddy of mine a few years back that a guy in rural California had a heavily worn 1894-s Dime he found in change. True? No idea and I highly doubt but my friend at least gave it a SMUDGE of credence.
I do have one that is a little more grounded. I have a close friend in southern Georgia who I was visiting and he told me he wanted to tell me something awesome: He knew an old timer with a 1792 J-2. I laughed and laughed. He kept a straight face and said he was serious. He was at this little coin club meeting at a VA and this guy who had strolled in a few times and he got a little friendly with this old fellow. Eventually this guy told him he had something he would like to show my friend. My friend thought nothing of it and BAM this guy takes a little 2x2 holder and pulls out the coin. My friend (I will call him Bill) thought "Oh this old fellow is a bit of a novice and thinks he has a genuine and should I just smile OR should I try and let him down easy?" Well Bill put on a show (sure it was fake) and smiled and said "Wow". This old guy was savy and replied something to the effect of "This is real and I know it is. I've had it looked at by experts". Bill still was not really buying it but said "Oh really". This guy whips out paper work from a very, very big coin dealer (Who I will not name but any collector knows the name) which was a personal letter from this dealer essentially begging him to sell it. The old guy told Bill that about 10 years ago (This was a few years back so I'd say around 2005) he wanted to have the coin authenticated. He contacted a few dealers who of course blew him off. I mean when somebody calls and says "I have a 1792 Judd 2" I think most coin shops are prone to hang up the phone. Well anyway this Unnamed Major Dealer sort of blew him off but told him he was going to be in Atlanta in a few months and if he wanted he could meet him. I guess he did and to this dealer obviously thought it was genuine because he sent a letter to him a bit later asking if he wanted to sell it. It was not begging but the letter was sort of pleading. My friend took me to see this guy and when I saw the coin it blew me away. This guy let Bill and me look over the coin for nearly an hour. I have obviously never handled a genuine coin and am far from an expert but we could see nothing wrong with it. It was amazing. The old guy says he will never sell it. I ask Bill every know and then and he says he sees the old fellow but the coin never comes up except in passing.
|
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
6370 Posts |
My dad talked to a dealer at a show and was told this story:
One day, at a different show, a little old lady walked up to this dealer's table trying to sell some BU Red OBW rolls of 1940's and 1950's wheat cents. As the dealer looked through the dates, he saw that one was a 1955. So he pulled out his Greysheet and made the woman a very fair offer on her coins. However, she didn't take it because she insisted that they were worth less and was fixed on a lower price. The dealer tried to buy them from her at the higher price, but the lady refused, so he just gave up and bought the rolls for her asking price. The lady was happy and walked away. The dealer immediately cracked open the roll and found seven 1955 Doubled die cents in BU Red. He immediately tried to find this woman and give her the money she deserved, but he could never find her. So he made about $50,000 off of that deal.
|
|
Valued Member
United States
486 Posts |
wow both of those stories are amazing. this one isn't as cool, but a few weeks ago I was talking the owner of my LCS, and he said he had something to show me. he pulls out an AMAZING 1912 D Wheat cent. he said some guy bought it for 50 bucks a few years ago and he bought it from him. he said it is worth about 500. he's sending it in for grading and he expects it to come back a 64-65 RB. |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
At a flea market a seller was talking to a guard about a $10 bill some lady paid him with. He said it really looked odd. They called over the next dealer that delt with coins and he said WOW, that thing is worth hundreds. The original seller said she pulled it out of a wad of similar ones and all new. We all went looking for her but she had left.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
6370 Posts |
I also talked with several people at this year's ANA Summer Seminar who had incredible stories as well. Bob Campbell was the dealer who taught my Counterfeit Detection class. He has several stories, the two most memerable were how he got to hold all five 1913 Liberty nickels in his hand at once, as well as the two Smithsonian 1933 Double Eagles. On the pikes peak tour, I sat next to a collector who had an AMAZING early US collection. He said that when he was 18 (30-40 years prior), he had owned an 1803 Proof dollar. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4233 Posts |
My calculus teacher in high school also ran the school coin club. At one meeting he pulled out a sequence of three or four Canadian 1948 dollars encased together, where the northern lights on the reverse progressively disappeared, all gem. My memory of it is hazy since it was 40 years ago, but at the time everyone in the club was drooling over what he said the value was. Many of us were also in his calculus class, and we heard a rumor from previous older kids who said to bug him to "show us his books", so all year long we bugged him about it. Finally close to the end of school, we came to class and he had a couple old books standing up on his desk. It was a first edition of Isaac Newton's Principia. At that time (1975) he said it was worth $100000. Maybe $500k today. Here we all are, staring incredulously at this calc teacher who brings a hundred grand into a classroom. His coin collection was amazing; every week it was something. I can't remember them all but I know I got to hold a 1909S VDB. I always wondered what that guy was doing teaching high school math.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1191 Posts |
Quote:
I always wondered what that guy was doing teaching high school math. Maybe trying to teach the true worth of money as well as create some new coin collectors/ hobbyists. Edited by Hello There
09/26/2015 11:07 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
573 Posts |
A buddy of mine was helping a family settle their mom's estate. She had worked at Woolworth's for 40 years and had a large number of leather purses in the basement filled with silver coinage. He doled out the Mercs by the pound, scanned through the SLQs for any 1916s then separated them out. He told them what to look for in the Washington quarters and the Walking halves. But he personally went through the Morgans. He said he was scanning the dates of each one (there were a few hundred) when he got to a specific one - 1893. He was too excited to turn it over and risk the disappointment of a CC or an O or nothing, so he set it aside. But curiosity won out and he slowly flipped it over to reveal - an S! He sent it in and it graded out as an F12. The family sold it to him for about half of FMV for all the work he put in for them. Of course, those of us who are collectors know that wasn't work at all. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1312 Posts |
I bought a tool box full of rolled wheat cents several years back, for a buck a roll. I tucked it away for several more years, until one day looking through the rolls, I found a roll of 1922-D's, by far my best find.
|
|
Valued Member
 204 Posts |
I posted this thread twice (I messed up) so we can have DOUBLE the fun!
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
932 Posts |
If you guys are wondering as to why I removed my post, my grandmother asked me to kindly remove it from the forum in case of prosecution/confiscation. Sorry  |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
12057 Posts |
I grew up in a middle class family, but with old money from the grandparents, and strangely enough, not a one of those grandparents nor any of their society friends collected rare coins. They seemed to prefer stamps, silver tea sets, and other things. My grandmother collected bells, Meissen porcelain and Victorian tea sets, and my grandfather collected 19th century firearms and shot glasses. My dad was an avid coin collector. He gave me his collection when I was still in elementary school, bank notes and coins. This was supplemented soon by my grandmother who gave me a roll of mixed Morgan and Peace dollars she and my grandpa had saved from change in Nevada during frequent trips to Reno, and also about a 1/2 lb. bag of 40% Kennedy halves and circulated washington/roosevelts. No rare coins to be found. Didn't bother me. Still doesn't. I spent a lot of time in law firms growing up, surely some of the lawyers had rare coins, right? Nope. They spent their money on Cuban cigars, cognac, wine, and ever-larger houses filled with ever-increasing amounts of antiques. I can honestly say that I have never met anyone outside of the bourse at a show who owns even a single super-rare coin, much the pity. Out of the 90+ employees in my department, none of them collects coins except me. It would be quite joyous indeed to bump into someone at work or out on the town who has something super-rare, but it just hasn't happened for me yet. I remain optimistic, at any rate, that this should occur at some point in time so that I may have a story of my own to share along the lines of "I once knew someone..." Yours in collecting, AB Member ANA - EAC - TNA - SSDC - CCT #890 "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis |
|
Pillar of the Community
Sweden
729 Posts |
Quote:
If you guys are wondering as to why I removed my post, my grandmother asked me to kindly remove it from the forum in case of prosecution/confiscation. Sorry I Think you should call up PCGS and ask how they hypothetically would approach a hypothetical coin such as the one you described. I'm not sure if they are obliged to report items such as your grandmother's. I mean, they have had coins like your certified earlier. Oh, I don't remember from your deleted post, was it a Denver or Philly strike? |
|
Valued Member
204 Posts |
OspreyCoins I missed your post so I do not even know what coin you are reference. If you can be subtle about it try or you can PM me because now I am curious.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
9792 Posts |
An old friend of mine has owned a 1913 Nickle, 1804 Dollar, the finest known 3 cent silver set, and Finest known Trade dollar set, plus the King of Siam Proof set, the oldest illustrated book on numismatics. He also was instrumental in keeping together and selling the SS Central gold treasure find and Wells Fargo gold hoard. He still dabbles in coins but now days is more into Sports management and real estate development. He really started his career in coins as David Hall (pre PCGS) personal buyer at coin shows. My other cool story came about when I worked at a coin shop in Colorado, an older guy came in one day and told a tale of going metal detecting his first time, with a friend and finding a jar of double eagles. (Yeah right) then proceeded to ask I we wanted to see them! He then pulled out a very old mason jar with a leather pouch inside, that contained around 50-60 Double Eagles, most low end mint state, the owner of the shop bought many of them. Another story was of a homeless guy that came in (before I worked there) and talked, quite knowledgeably about national bank notes from time to time. Apparently he always carried around a brown paper bag with him, one of the other salesman told me he had a fantastic collection worth several hundred thousand dollars in it - he never would sell or part with any of the notes though. I didn't get to see that one, only heard the story. "Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin" - Aaron R. Feldman - "And read it" - Me 2013! ANA Life Member #3288 in good standing since 1981, ANS, Early American Coppers Member (EAC), Colonial Coin Collectors Club member (C4), Conder Token Collector Club member (CTCC), Civil War Token Society (CWTS) member, Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) & Numismatic Bibliomania Society member (NBS), USMex, Member in good standing, 2¢ variety collector. See my want page: http://goccf.com/t/140440 |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4337 Posts |
Quote:
If you guys are wondering as to why I removed my post, my grandmother asked me to kindly remove it from the forum in case of prosecution/confiscation. Sorry @ospreycoins - what coin is it? I don't care so much about the story you apparently cannot tell but I do want to know what the coin was if you'd be so kind as to indulge me. Thanks  |
| |
Replies: 18 / Views: 3,745 |
Posted 09/26/2015 5:12 pm
