Abyss - On your first point - I have been at this a long time, about 49 years now. I started collecting coins rather seriously when I was first sick as a 10 year old. I had started accumulating old coins from change in 2nd or 3rd grade, but I didn't really buy anything and I didn't even own a book on coins until I was 10. My uncle who was a coin dealer (and my God Father) thought it would be good hobby for me since I had to be still a lot. He got my mother to get me a Blue Book (cheaper than the
Red Book). I liked reading. So I studied coins. I think it took me about two weeks to realize that
Red Book was better than Blue. But I added at least one book a month.
A good friend's grandfather ran a group of very successful ice cream stands in our town and on Saturday mornings my friend and I would sort through a couple thousand dollars worth of small change. The only requirement was that I had to replace anything I took coin for coin. So I had to be very selective on what I bought (at face value).
One of my earliest aquisitions from the store receipts was the 1944 no P counterfeit nickel mentioned in the
Red Book footnote. I read up on that which led me to other books on forgery.
That was 1960 and it got me started on counterfeit coins. My uncle had a lot of contacts in the business and I met many older coin dealers. A couple were friends of actual counterfeiters and I got quite a bit of "heresay" information about the operations in New England.
At different times since then I have been involved in various parts of the business mostly as a hobby or vest pocket dealer but I always gravitate back to the forgeries. They fascinate me.
On your second point - you are DEAD ON. It makes no sense at all. But like P.T Barnum said or didn't say "There's a sucker born every minute".
Posted 04/24/2006 1:24 pm
- I would do a happy dance to be rid of them for a quarter of that
