Anybody ever LOSE a valuable coin?
MrBear
Posts: 379 ✭✭✭
Back in 2008, I bought two each of the 1/10 & 1/4 oz proof and unc fractional gold buffaloes. Got 'em all slabbed, etc. So, a few years later, I'm digging around in my box of coins in my closet, and one of the 1/4oz proofs is missing. I have no idea what happened to it. The idea that my one friend who had a key, or the landlord, went rooting around in my closet and decided to steal that one coin seems...far-fetched. And of course, it's the most valuable of the four coins.
When I moved in 2013, I was hoping that it would "miraculously" appear when everything was getting packed up (I packed the coins). But nada.
That kind of thing happen to anyone else?
Occasionally successful coin collector.
2
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There's the story of the lost $4 Stella that I won't tell here. It's a sad story to me, entertaining to others.
Valuable is relative. Not as if I'm talking about the 1933 DE.
I lost around $15,000 (cost) five silver coins for about 4 years. They were located about 2 years ago while cleaning out a dresser.
About 3 years ago I lost 5 DE's. They had a rubber band around them so I imagine they are still living together. WHERE???
I lost an ungraded $10 gold pc - unslabbed and finally determined that 1 must have sold the coin locally and didn't process the papers correctly thus I removed it from inventory. Last month I found the coin.
As the years go by I'm lucky that I still know the location of the coins I buried. Perhaps I should dig them up before I forget where I put the shovel?
Not yet. When I spend thousands of dollars on my coins I tend to work hard at not losing them. It’s called responsibility.
During drinking hours? Yep.
Otherwise, no.
Thankfully no. I have misplaced some common low grade buffalo nickels but nothing valuable. I usually keep track of the more expensive stuff pretty well.
Collector
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I misplaced a raw 1960 Lg/Sm date proof still in the Mint cello 20 years ago. It's still missing.
I have lost several silver pocket pieces, which is why even though I would like to carry a gold one, I will not.
Fred Weinberg accidentally threw away a $4 Stella.
There's the story of 7500 bitcoin being thrown in the trash. It's worth $273M at current prices.
With that money, you could buy the 1933 DE, 1794 Specimen Dollar and Partrick Brasher for your 3 rarities and still have enough to try and entice the J-1776 owner to sell.
I purchased a 1884-S Morgan in the late 80's and I misplaced it and who knows what else during one of my military moves. I hope to find it/them one day.
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I misplaced 3 coins worth about $15k-$20k in pcgs plastic once. I found them several months later…. I stashed them behind some books on a bookshelf before going out of town in a hurry and when I went to look for them a month or two later, I couldn’t remember where I put them. I was pretty pleased when I found them.
I thought I accidentally shipped them out to someone by mistake. I even sent an email to about 800 customers asking if anyone received them by mistake (I had a lot going on at the time).
Other than that, I’ve been pretty good.
never happened to me yet
graded silver coins (NEED TO SELL ASAP)
link below
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7bPCP787VCZCCKb67
Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one. It's funny, though. I still have the mint receipt for them, even though I don't usually keep those. And I was always very careful with my gold before I was finally able to get a safe deposit box. And I don't think I ever left the gold just "laying around" my apartment. I've started to dig through the boxes of coins that I packed up eight years ago, so I guess it's possible I'll open something up and find it there. But I'm not holding my breath.
Ahh Fred, you have told your story too often— you’re excused from having to relive that horrible experience
Somewhere in my office there’s a raw two cent piece that I’ve had for over fifty years.
Always kept it on my desk, never left the room. It’s here somewhere.
Same here
My 2 x 2 cellophane was tattered so I put my 1916-D dime in a white envelope and put it in my pocket as to not to lose it. I get home and place it on my desk. It was folded and folded so looked like an empty envelope. So this tiny dime sitting in the bottom corner of this envelope was never seen again.......It is now sitting in our local landfill. It was a nice fine and at the time it was lost the value was ..........$800.00 a number I will never forget. Still upset I never owned another one.
Back when I accumulated over a million sports cards I misplaced a couple of Tatis Bowman Chrome.
Very early in his career, and he was priced fairly reasonable.... about $15 each raw for a purple non auto.
Buyer had bought the purple and a few others.... Problem was, I had a flight to catch that hour so I canceled. Told him when I got back he would get his cards. Did not want to offend Ebay shipping rules. He neg'd me twice and just was a rude dirt bag.
I eventually found the cards and sent them to PSA. Just sold the purple last week for $425 and likely made nearly as much on the other cards.
I would have sent the cards to him for free... oh well.
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Lost a $5 Indian when I moved from the PNW in 2008. Found it two years later in a box of ammo. No idea how it got there. Now am missing my 1995W ASE in PCGS plastic. Been looking for it for a month... no idea where it is. Must have taken it out of my safe for some reason. Cheers, RickO
So far, I've been good. No loss.
My YouTube Channel
Yes. It was a gold piece. Just like your avatar. Unless someone has found it, it is laying along the road somewhere between my home and town. I got distracted while putting a two year old in her car seat and I left the coin on top of the tool box in the back of my truck. Oh, well.
Don't think I've ever lost a valuable coin but how about 2400 "not so valuable" ones.....
I've told this story before but here it is again.
Once upon a time I had a roll set of circulated Roosevelt silver dimes, 1946 through 1964, 48 coins per set, 50 sets, 2400 coins. They were squirreled away somewhere in the home I moved out of 31 years ago. Several years ago I thought I might put them in inexpensive Whitman blue folders and sell them one at a time on eBay. Never thought about them until then and they were nowhere to be found. I don't remember ever selling them and if they are somewhere in my house I have no idea where. For the last few years I have been tempted to knock on the door of the old house, tell them "part" of the story, and ask them if they would accept $100.00 to let me come in and look where I think I may have hidden them.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
Why don't you? I would.
My cousin bought a home many years ago and replaced all the carpet. When he took up the old carpet he found around $2,000 of old $100 bills that were hidden under a floorboard. I told him that he should notify the previous owner of the house. He said no because he bought the house from a very young couple who only lived there for a couple of years. Finders Keepers.
Was in a Vegas casino a few years ago waiting in line at the cashiers window when I saw a purple chip on the floor. I put my foot over it and briefly pondered what to do. It seemed like a poor idea to start asking people at a casino if they had lost a $500 chip so I bent down and put it in my pocket.
I've never lost a valuable coin or even a not so valuable one.
Donato
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
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The most valuable coin I lost was somebody else's - a 1926 FH SLQ, no idea to this day what happened to it.
I had a raw 1887-S PL morgan my very young son (~3) took off my desk, it had been housed in an airtite. We searched high and low for that thing. At least 2 years later we found it - he had tucked it into one of the zipper pockets of a suitcase. Sent it in and it graded 63PL.
1916 MPL... In my last life I traded a bunch of silver for it to a member here... Got it and I tucked it away. Life happened and things got real fast in my life. Have not seen it since 2010. I had it photographed by one of the MPL Collectors and I got it back from him... But the coin is gone. I have searched auction archives thinking I consigned it and searched my e-mails thinking I made a deal for it... Both none. We have since moved and the coin has still not shown up. So, there is a very nice 65/66 RB 1916 MPL out there somewhere...
It happens
I lost my entire US collection. When I got sick in 2013 I thought I had to give up the hobby, and I don't remember where the collection was put. By time I realized I could do it with some adjustments, in 2019, I no longer remember where it went, and I've only found about 1/4th it since then.
While it's nothing particularly expensive, what with my self imposed $20 per item limit, it does have sentimental value as some of it I inherited from my late father and grandfather, whom I never even met.
The majority of it is circulation finds, which has been my preferred method since day one, so I could rebuild the clad era stuff if I had to...but I will hold out hope it will be found in time.
I have a friend that lost one of the Eliasberg Chain Cents for 5 years. He finally found it a few years ago. I have been missing a $5 Indian for over a decade.
"Glad" to hear this happens to others as well. LOL
The nice aspect to being retired is that looking for coins I lost is another hobby.
I haven't done that yet!
Kind of.
I was cleaning out the attic years ago and came across my old college briefcase. I thought I’d look through some of the papers first for old times before throwing it out and found a half ounce gold eagle and a quarter ounce gold eagle both in flips.
I still have no idea when I got them and they almost went into the trash.
It’s a possibility when you both hoard and hide things. Gotta be careful.
I came very close to losing a Medieval English coin a few years ago:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/980380/the-perils-of-cleaning-your-coins
I collected coins when I was a kid, and stopped when I was in college. Started up a gain 10 years later when the state quarters began. My "original" collection is probably not worth very much, but it was boxed up in an old wine box (I grew up in Philly) and I THINK it's in my closet. If it hasn't vanished into the ether, it hasn't been opened since the late 80s
I've misplaced a ANACS 1914 D, AU 58 for about a month now. Locked it up when we went to Denver for a wedding and now can't figure out what I did with it...Sigh! Was getting ready to convert to a PCGS slab to match it to my circulated collection, but guess it will have to wait.
Bruce
I lost a roll of walkers for a couple of years. When I was a kid I had a 5$ Lib that I had in a flip that fell out in my Dads car. I gave up looking for it but 3 years later found it when I learned to take out the back seat having never really forgotten about lost gold. That coin got a distinct ding on it during all of that and I sold it in the mid 90s. I see it pop up at market from time to time (dogs circulate), its on eBay now.
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
I lost this coin, bought it raw and blast white and found it 20 years later in an old college notebook in a paper flip.
If you find it, it would be like opening a time capsule.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
My dad got a BU roll of 1960-P small date cents in the early 1960's. But, he also had a lot of rolls of BU 1960 large date cents. I inherited all these in 2007 after my dad passed away. I never found the 1960-P Small date roll and don't know what happened to it. He also had almost a roll of VF-XF 1909VDB cents that have disappeared also. Sometimes, I think that some stuff really does "disappear".
As for me- not disappearing, but stolen, by a now former "friend", by using slight of hand. An entire blue coin book of about 12-15 1807-1809 bust halves including a rare variety of 1807 in AU/unc. condition. Always makes me sad when someone takes things that are not theirs. Thieves that are too lazy to earn their own things in life and just take what others have earned.
For sure. There are a couple of Whitman folders, some odds and ends, an ancient Greek or Roman coin that my dad got me so that I could get Coin Collecting merit badge, a few random silver coins (mostly junk, but probably a Morgan or two), and, IIRC, an 1860 penny that was grey/silver in color for some reason. But, again, it's been around 30 years...
1670 Bristol, England farthing - got in the mail from Scotland in 1999 - the same day my mother passed away. I know I opened the package and looked at the token and accidentally put it back in the package which I threw away without thinking that I had put the coin back in it.
"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making new discoveries" -A.A. Milne
The pardon is for tyrants. They like to declare pardons on holidays, such as the birthday of the dictator, or Christ, or the Revolution. Dictators should be encouraged to keep it up. And we should be encouraged to remember that the promiscuous dispensation of clemency is not a sign of political liberality. It is instead one of those valuable, identifying marks of tyranny.
Charles Krauthammer
Me: No
USPO: Yes
It's not super valuable, but I'm pretty sure there's a Columbian Expo dollar in my couch lol.
I was looking at two of them that I own and one disappeared.
When the couch gets old and leaves this world, I'm ripping off the bottom and checking for it
This little bugger lol...
Coins are Neato!
"If it's a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone...somewhere...is making a penny." - Steven Wright
It seems this topic comes up every several years.
My previously referenced lost coin was a high relief 1907 Double Eagle that I had won in an auction. It was a PCGS MS62 that I have been told by those I showed it to at a major coin show that it was actually better than a MS64 that I had acquired. Probably should send it in for an upgrade or at least see if it merits a CAC designation.
I found it years later stuffed in an envelope with some old correspondence I was getting ready to trash.
Did you resubmit??
@Mr Bear
Still in the original holder.
If I eventually resubmit it will likely be at a show.