Stories Of The Novice.

That STILL happens too !.......Kennedy searchers are occasionally finding "rolls" of Franklins or rolls of 90% or 40%.......somebody is giving themselves a migrane headache over that "oops" !...

eaglefoot- well I think that a lot of those rolls may actually be the result of old change jars in the basement being rolled after years of hiding. Also a lot of non-collectors just don't get the fact that coins are not just worth their face value. In all seriousness, my bank tellers have told me about people showing up with shoe boxes full of morgans and Peace dollars and asking "Are these STILL worth a dollar?" and then saying that they just want to turn them in for cash.

What is also weird is that some non-collectors for whatever reason think that dealers will just cheat them out of their money so they will turn their old coins into the bank. One example (according to my teller) is of a woman who had a bunch of $5 gold coins and took them to the bank. The teller told her that they were worth a lot of money and should take them to a dealer. The woman said that she was not going to be duped at insisted that she turn each $5 coin into a $5 bill. My thought is how could anyone think that a dealer would give them less than face for an old, gold coin? Just crazy....and stupid.

There are a few things I remember from being a kid and they all revolved around the same 7-11 we would hang out at. During the summer we take bike rides down there and spend part of the day playing video games, hanging out and of course, sucking down a Slurpee. About every few weeks I always seemed to find a coin that seemed strange or weird in some way and since I knew nothing about them, I would get rid of them as fast as I could. Looking back I can remember culls, varieties, etc., there must have been thousands of dollars I traded back in because I thought they were strange.

Then to make matters worse, my parents were passing through a few weeks ago and my dad was teasing me about roll hunting and so I showed him what I found and the value of them. He then looked at me weird and asked me about double dies and if they were worth anything. I said yes and depending on when they were they were worth more, he then started to go white. I asked him what was wrong and he told me how he remembered me coming home with one (from the same darn 7-11) and that he had no idea what it was and gave it no more thought. I then asked him if he remembered the date by chance, he said that it was either from the 60's or 70's. So I quickly pulled out the price guide, explained how grading works real quick and think I gave him a heart attack. Needless to say, I think he checks ALL of his change now.

I've posted this story before, so you old timers can go in ignore mode.

As a kid in the late 50's Dad got us started in coin collecting. He would give us about $5 a week to visit local merchants and ask for any coins in the till dated prior to 1940. That all worked out very well for us.

One day I was over at a friends house and had a quarter in my pocket (my money, not Dad's seed money). My friend had an Indian Head cent on his dresser and I asked about it. The friend was not a coin collector and told me it was just something he had casually acquired. I told him I'd give him a quarter for it and he jumped at the deal ... he thought I was a bit crazy paying a quarter for a penny. I took it home and when Dad came home from work I told him what I'd done. Dad asked to take a look at the cent. I handed it to him and he about fainted. It was dated 1877! Dad knew a lot more than I did about this series and started grilling me with questions ... who, what, when, where, etc. I had nothing to hide and told him I paid Billy a quarter for it. Dad got on the phone and spoke to Billy. He told Dad that another 8-yr old gave it to him. Dad asked for the name and recognized it as the son of another local collector. One phone call later got an 8-yr old in heaps of trouble. The other collector set the phone down and went to check his Whitman ... sure enough there was an empty spot where his '77 used to be. The next day Dad returned the coin to him. I never did get my 25 cents back!!

SeatedNut- yeah, a lot of coins have been filched from collections over the years in just such a way.

I worked at a 7-11 to help pay bills while going to college. A couple of regular's (kids) came in to buy slurpees. I was not collecting coins at the time but certainly knew a Morgan dollars were not common circulating coins. And this is what the kids were paying with. I asked where they received these unique coins and they stated from there house. I knew the kids parents and went ahead and took the coins for payment. I set the coins aside using two of my hard to come by at the time dollar bills and when I saw there parents I explained what transpired and they in turn were appreciative and thankfull when I gave them there Morgan dollars back. Needless to say the kids never came back with Morgans to pay for slupees.
I've got to admit it makes one feel good to do the right thing!

The first display of ignorance happened about 15 years ago. I had a bill, not sure of the denomination but it had pointed "tail" of paper sticking out where it had been cut wrong. I tore off the tail to "correct" the error and spent it.

I'm new to paper money collecting but this one irks me because it happened a couple of years ago. I noticed a client had paid me with a red seal $20 note. The red seal stuck out like a sore thumb and I wondered why it was different from the others, but that Jackson got spent too.

Heres my biggest screwup, so far anyway. I was going through some old cents that I had accumulated, sorting out anything crusty or nasty looking and decided to try moving them on ebay. I had a couple of rolls that I didn't want, mostly Lincolns with a few IHCs mixed in so I advertised them as well sorted culls. I forget how much I got out of them, nothing much if I remember right, but they sold and then later I got a message from the buyer that one of the IHCs was a 72. He said he had to put it under a microscope to see the date but he was tickled pink to get it.