From Face Value to Major Keys: A humble collection and starting off some YNs

airplanenut

I've been handling eBay consignments for 17 years (for those of you who met me in high school, I bet you feel pretty old now, don't ya?). One of the aspects I particularly enjoy is that I get to handle all sorts of material, including lots of coins I wouldn't otherwise have any reason to see. Sometimes, I just get to handle a nice collection and appreciate a collector's work. I was just reminded of such a collection, so, a little story.

In mid 2015 I was contacted by someone saying he was looking to sell his late father's collection, and could I help. I found out generally what was in the collection and it sounded like a nice little set--a run of all the years of the father's life, plus some additional coins or dates he felt important. The collection came to me all raw, binder pages full of 2x2 flips. As I went through them, I couldn't help but notice that every coin was treated exactly the same. There were the modern coins worth little more than face value. There were the "collector" coins of all types spanning the late 19th and most of the 20th century. Oh, and there were the keys. Tucked into their spot with a little label like all the others were the 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter, the 1901-S Barber Quarter, the 1916-D Merc, the 1909-S VDB, the 1893-S Morgan, the 1877 Indian Cent, among other keys, all VF-AU (some details, some problem-free). That's when I really fell in love with the collection. Yes, these were exciting coins to handle (and I won't complain about the commission), but I was thrilled to see a collection that was so clearly a labor of love, and while some coins were worth orders of magnitude more than others, they were treated just the same, as only all together did they make this collector's collection complete.

I also realized that I had some decisions to make, or, rather, my consignor did. Sending off the high-end stuff to get graded was a no-brainer. But what about the stuff that wasn't worth much? Selling each of those coins individually wasn't going to cover the commission, and I could make a few large lots, but they still wouldn't likely sell for much. I suggested donating the coins to a YN group with the idea that the value was relatively insignificant, and there were enough coins to seed dozens of collections. Judging by how the collection was sent to me, it seemed that the consignor's father would have appreciated that idea, and my consignor certainly did. So in one consignment I ended up handling some of the most valuable coins I've sold, as well as others not valuable enough to sell. But both of those groups proved equally memorable.

Jeremy

PS- That initial email sent by the consignor got filtered to my spam box. Boy am I glad to checked it that day.

ShaunBC5

That’s a great story. I wish I had been hooked up with a YN group as a kid. I was lucky to have an uncle that really got me into coins and the dad of a grown man at church who seeded me with 100 mercs (got to pick 100 out of a giant bank bag).
I can only imagine what the kids got out of this man’s collection. And some established collectors got some really nice stuff!

WaterSport

Great story - neat stuff. I like it!

Ws

ricko

Amazing story Jeremy...and nice coins. You have done well over the years. I remember when you first moved to Seattle (I was still working there at the time). Thanks for the story and the pictures. Cheers, RickO

1630Boston

Thanks for sharing that

BryceM

Raw? No stickers? Not even any plastic? Can’t possibly have been nice, or even remotely interesting......

Honestly, the guy having the most fun is the winner and it sounds like a really fun collection. The keys were clearly carefully chosen. I have most of my stuff in plastic, but I get tremendous enjoyment out of a complete set of raw Walkers in a Dansco album and a 7070 that’s half-finished.

MFeld

Great post.
Great idea.
Neither of the above, a bit surprising.

Namvet69

Great that you had the insight and patience to appreciate the potential. Nice coins. Peace Roy

calgolddiver

very cool story and some nice keys !!!

CoinJunkie

Cool coins, cool story. That 1877 Indian cent is meatier than what would often be found in such a collection.

kevinstang

Wow, what a great collection of keys in great condition! Hard to find in mid grades like that no doubt in the past as well as the present!

Smudge

Agreed,great post, great story.

rln_14

Thanks for posting

DCW

Great story and glad you took the time to tell it.
What were the above keys graded at PCGS?

airplanenut

@DCW said:
Great story and glad you took the time to tell it.
What were the above keys graded at PCGS?

1916-D 10c: XF Details (Cleaned)
1901-S 25c: VF Details (Repaired)
1916 25c: VF35
1877 1c: AU50
1893-S $1: XF Details (Smoothed)

Rayman311

Nice story

Mgarmy

Awesome!

Jimnight

Nice story! I enjoy looking at key dates.

savitale

Nice story, thanks for sharing. In the end this seems to be the challenge facing many date/mintmark collectors, including myself. Five-figure coins sit alongside two-figure coins. What to do? Sounds like you found a solution that worked well for everyone.