"Money Laundering" at San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel...Cute Story
RichR
Posts: 3,870 ✭✭✭✭✭
A very cute story on the history of coin washing at this famous downtown hotel.
The volume of coins that were washed back in the day was phenomenal...tens of thousands in change each day or week...back when people actually used cash!
I did a little more digging and this man has since retired and the service (and a little piece of coin history) was ended.
Oh well...
2
Comments
Interesting story! As much as we dislike cleaned coins in the hobby, this was a classy idea to elevate the customer/ visitor experience in the 1930s for their fashion shows.
I wonder how many details graded coins in slabs passed through that hotel.
Thanks for sharing this.
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistry/publishedset.aspx?s=142753
https://www.autismforums.com/media/albums/acrylic-colors-by-rocco.291/
Mike Rowe and Dirty Jobs did a segment on cleaning coins the Fairmont. 😉🙀🦫
Really made my skin crawl 🫠
Or was it the St. Francis🧐
🎶 shout shout, let it all out 🎶
"Holsen recalls the time a Department of Justice group was meeting at the hotel, and Holsen couldn’t resist the urge to confess to money-laundering. That raised a few eyebrows until he explained and they were charmed, awarding him an FBI T-shirt."
As a collector, I wonder how many gem SF silver (and gold?) coins dating back to the early 1900s were ruined by using Borax and ball bearings on them?
All of my magnificent rainbow toned State Quarters have been washing machine finds. It's always seemed like an odd coincidence and/or mystery....... So far I've only been able to narrow the explanation down to this.......
Coincidence? 🤔
Yeah that was as upsetting as the Hawaii-Five-O 1913 Liberty Nickel getting plunked in a newspaper machine 😆
From what I remember they also washed the currency.
Quite the marketing gimmick.... All to prevent soiling m'ladies gloves. Surprised no one started doing this during the virus epidemic. Would have just been a waste anyway. Cheers, RickO
I never heard of "Ball Bearings" being used. When I hear ball bearings I think of metal balls......But.....those plastic balls used in rock tumbling/polishing cannisters?.....Definitely! But only plastic cannisters.....Borax? Never heard that either...... Liquid dish soap yes.......But......Here's a tip!.....Want to get rid of ants? Use 20 Mule Team Borax powdered detergent!.... It's cheap and bye-bye ants!.....And every other crawling, crawly, crawler!
Back when I was a kid...mom used Borax in the wash once...and dad immediately developed what was known as "jock itch"!
Mom never used borax in the wash again!
I don't recommend it for humans...... Just for killing' bugs!!!
Hey,....Richie......Maybe your Dad had the "Bug Down Below" and Mom was wise to it.🤷...She taught him a lesson....... Once was enough!!!!...... God Bless Mommies! They know everything..... because Mommy does the laundry!!!!🤦
[[Hey,....Richie......Maybe your Dad had the "Bug Down Below" and Mom was wise to it.]]
Oh no no...in that situation, mom would have simply blown his head clean off...no ifs ands or buts!