Interesting Numismatic Stories

Cool story,thanks for starting the thread. This is going to be interesting
John1

At the coin shop that I work at, we had a couple come in with a large box of coins. At first it was a bunch of the usual junk, lots of junk silver, Barbers, Wheat cents, etc. But at the bottom the had a container FILLED with gold! After we counted them out, they ended up having over 100 double eagles and dozens of $10s and $5s. It took us the whole morning to appraise the collection, and they ended up selling us most of the collection. They kept the gold, and we helped them divide it up for their estate. They also bought a safe from us to store the gold in .

Only interesting story I have is at a coin show I noticed a box of Indian Head Nickels. I tried to ask the dealer how much for some of them. He was just blabbing with someone and appeared to think of me as a bother. He sort of blurted out 5 for a dollar. I started to look through some and spotted a 3 leg Buffalo, a couple of 13's, etc. I asked where he got them and he really was getting irritated with my interruptions. He said he bought he entire box from someone so now either buy something or shut up. I picked up about 25 of them including the 3 legged one, several 13Sl's, and a 21S and all for $5. I tried one more time to tell him what he had but he just wouldn't listen.

I once bought an 1851O Three Cent Silver in an NGC slab labeled as 1851 (no O). About a $10 difference in value, so that's not the story.

The story is that the dealer and I were talking about the idiot across the aisle who had an ordinary MS62 1963 Franklin labeled as 1962 that he wanted $500 for the "major TPG error".

To this day I've never told my friend the dealer (our wives know each other too).

Here's another that I've told here before, but it's been many years and it's buried in the archives .

When I was 7 or 8 (late 50's) my dad had us hooked on coin collecting. He told us if we saw something interesting in circulation "save it and show it to him". I was over at my friend Billy's house and noticed an Indian Head cent on his night stand. "Hey Billy, I'll give you a quarter for that Indian cent". "Deal!" Took it home and showed it to Dad that night and he knew something was wrong. Where did you get this he asked. I told him I bought it from Billy for a quarter. Dad called Billy's dad and asked where Billy acquired the coin. A child's name was offered as the source and Dad recognized the last name immediately. He called the boy's father and asked "Hey ?, do you have an 1877 Indian cent in your collection. Why yes I do, why do you ask? Dad related the story to him and returned the 1877 the next day. The poor kid probably got a whoopin' and I was out a quarter!

In march of 1984 I was in a coin shop that was owned by a distant relative of mine. The shop was the only one around close and I usually went in there once a week to look over his new arrivals. Being married with young kids, I didn't have much money for coins. I was looking through some Morgans he had got in and spied a 93-s. I showed it to him and ask if he would hold it for me until I saved up his asking price. He handed it to me and said take it and pay me when I could. It was in fine condition with a light initial W scratched on liberty's cheek. He charged me $400.00 for it. I still have it and consider it a treasure. I have many fond memories of that coin shop.

Let's keep this going folks.

As a young lad in 1961, I attended the county fair. One of the big events that year was a scholarship for a young lady sponsored by Eagles, Elks, Lions, etc. She was to win her weight in silver dollars. They had one of those oversized balance scales and placed her on the swing seat. The master of ceremonies lifted up a mint-sealed canvas bag of silver dollars and placed it on the opposite platform. It did not lift the young lady off the ground. He placed a second and she popped off the ground. He removed one bag and proceeded to cut it open and pour the contents onto the platform. He continued to pour until about 3/4 of the contents lifted her gently off the ground. I seem to remember she weighed 105 pounds, so she ended up with approximately $1780 in uncirculated Morgan or Peace dollars (I didn't get a close look at them to determine which).

The sad part is she undoubtedly took them straight to the bank and deposited them. Imagine if she had kept them until today.