What's the best and/or most expensive coin you have lost, or inadvertantly destroyed?
Bochiman
Posts: 25,447 ✭✭✭✭✭
Over the last handful of years, I have lost, and not found (yet?) some proof silver eagles.
I thought I had lost a dateless (pre-1800) large cent, which I think is cool, but I found it yesterday.
I know one member has lost a stella 
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
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I lost a seated liberty quarter once. I'm not exactly sure, but I think I dropped it down the toilet.
Young Numismatist
Be nice.
The only coin I destroyed was a proof 1960 Silver quarter when I was 13. I rubbed, and polished that baby more than once. LOL.
I bought it 1980 at the top of the silver market. In 1980, six bucks was a fortune for me. So in 2023 dollars and in a ratio to my income now, it would probably be like destroying a $5,000 dollar coin.
How about that guy who dropped a 1804 dollar into some wet cement?
I’ve mostly been careful with my coins, but little me planted my grimy hands on some proof commemoratives.
Edit: I did lose a capped die quarter, somehow.
Type collector, mainly into Seated. -formerly Ownerofawheatiehorde. Good BST transactions with: mirabela, OKCC, MICHAELDIXON, Gerard
I didn't mention any names....
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
Fred wins on this one!
I lost an 1864 two cent piece with a very bold and rare repunched date. I also lost a 1938 proof Jefferson nickel. Both were cherrypicked so the monetary loss wasn't so bad, but man I really liked both coins a lot.
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
Doily walker that was lost in transit. Looked freakin' nice too.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
Lost a sovereign. No more gold pocket pieces for me.
I have temporarily placed a coin or two in a "safe place" for 6+ months a couple times but I haven't permanently lost one yet. Fingers crossed. I once went to a local coin show and wore a pair of cargo shorts. I placed a coin in one of the large cargo short pockets. After the show, I only had them on for a couple hours and so I decided to hang them back up. I looked for the coin for months off and on. 6+ months later, I pulled the shorts out of my closet and found the coin. It was about a $1000 coin. Lol
Yesterday, I "found" a coin I had totally forgotten about. I bought it last July and decided it wasn't right for my primary collection so I put it aside on my desk while I decided to think about what I should do with it. Eventually a bunch of stuff got piled on top of it. I will take it with me to Central States on Thursday to see if I can find a new home for it. I have $600 in this coin. I really should clean my desk. I'm sure there's plenty of other stuff buried on it.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Thankfully, the worst I have ever done is take Tarn-X to some brown, MS Wheat cents and scrub the bejesus out of a number of 1964 JFK half dollars with jewelry polish when I was a kid.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
When I was ~8 years old, a neighbor had a slot like machine that took large pennys (think UK). They taught me how to use erasers and lemon juice to brighten up copper. I used it on those pennies and on US cents of the time as well.....Oooops
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
I used my Mom’s copper cleaner on a bunch of Lincoln cents back in the 70s. Ruined? Maybe.
Dave
In 1966 A friend a fellow soph in my hs band got a 1891-S PL dollar from the bank for face. It could have been a 65. It had some light gold toning. He used an eraser get that off ruined the coin. Please don’t use erasers on them. He did sell it to some guy in his math class for $1.25. At that time a HB and coke was 41c at a mom and pop coffee shop.
Thus far, nothing lost, all insured, all is good.
A raw, generic Saint that I bought off EBay, when gold was around $800. And that’s about how long it’s been missing.
I am hopeful it will turn up in the future, though!😉
Interesting on some of these....
I wasn't really wondering about coins lost in shipping...more like, as some have storied, the ones "misplaced" or "unknowningly ruined by cleaning that didn't know better".
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
During a softball all-star game, sitting on the bench, sharpening my spikes o, on the dust filled field, up pops a Indian head cent. I don't remember the date but I remember the sharp look it contained. I thought if I polish it for a few weeks it may be
worth more than not.
Live and Learn.
Although, I did get my picture in the local newspaper standing on second base. Just lucky I guess.
I lost a MS 66 common date Saint for 5-10 years myself. I did find it, though.
I found a 1916 (non-D) mercury dime while visiting my childhood summer home on Peaks Island Maine 10 or more years ago. It was sitting on a large rock on the shore.
So now for the lost part, I do not know what I did with that dime. I have to admit that I honestly don't know if it was a d. I am calling it a non d so as to not look as though I am embellishing the truth. I hope it turns up again someday. True story.
Yup. Throwing away a PCGS slabbed $4 Gold Stella with the shipping packaging will be hard to beat.
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
I am currently missing one, .... I say missing, it must be here in the house somewhere, I just have not found the one I am looking for.... A 1995W ASE, slabbed.... I know I have it, cannot find it. I will... Cheers, RickO
It was in a PCGS first generation holder – but not with any shipping packaging – it was thrown away by accident in a shipping room tall trashcan
I had an 1875 Proof 20 cent piece get lost while being returned to an Ebay dealer about 20 years ago. He received an empty package. I always felt like it was removed from the package at my post office before being shipped. Luckily, I had insurance on the usps package, and eventually got $1500 back.
Man, I would have been at the landfill with an army of day laborers until that baby was found! 😆
Did you call waste management?
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
I have a 1914-D Lincoln Cent that resides in an OGH PCGS F15 holder.
It is somewhere in the house, but I have not seen it for several years.
Previous searches for it yielded negative results.
I will be very happy if it shows up some day.
I might have done this to a 1836 quarter.
never had either happen
I invite you to explore a selection of coins for sale at the link provided below.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LmQTZyt2cqSrxqc89
I bought a coin last month on eBay which was sent to my prior address on file. I forgot to change it and for some reason assumed it would be sent to my Paypal confirmed address. Not anymore since it isn't the same company. I only paid $100 for it and it's a duplicate date, but a very difficult coin to find and a variety I didn't and still now don't have.
I purchased a French Hercules coin when I lived there in the 1990s. I left it in its PVC flip and forgot about it for a couple decades. When I took it out, there was grimy sticky green goo all over the surfaces.
Nothing a bunch of scrubbing and polishing couldn't fix.
Then, a few years later, I learned about acetone.......
This coin which was originally white went missing for 25 years and I found it in a flip in an old college notebook in the garage.
@skier07
Are you saying the notebook caused this?
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Long story but as a paper boy in the early 1970-s I was given a f-15 1921-S Walking Half as a Christmas gift from a customer.
I spent weeks trying to legibly write the descriptions on the 2X2 holder. I have terrible penmanship.
One day I decided to try again and made a huge staple scratch across the obverse of the coin.
Still makes me sick to my stomach. James
The coin was white when it went missing. So it was either the notebook, the flip, or being stored in a box in my garage.
No idea but I dropped an uncirculated Seated quarter on the concrete last week. Nice rim ding.
That one is fresh in my mind.
Is it lost, if you can't remember??
Ummm… Do you frequently take coins to the bathroom?
I lost a raw type III inc gold dollar. I never found it.
I've had a few coins stolen and it hurts to think of it; a $5 Indian around MS60, several 1 oz. gold coins 20 years ago at a show. I lost a 1/20 oz foreign gold coin. An unc. silver Washington quarter slipped down into a chair that I found a month ago.
It's probably the same landfill where that dude had thrown away a hard drive with MILLIONS (100s of millions now) of bitcoin......
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
I lost a Vermont Baby Head, a nice F-VF with a “wormy” planchet and great surfaces. Last seein it photographing it, maybe accidently left it as the post office.....I dunno. Turned the place over searching for it......Destroyed a Tin American Plantation Token Restrike trying to straighten a warped/bent planchet. Smosshed it! .
A had a 1884-S Morgan, raw, that I purchased around 90-91. The last place I remember it being was in one of those fire resistant safes. There have been several military moves since then.
BST transactions: dbldie55, jayPem, 78saen, UltraHighRelief, nibanny, liefgold, FallGuy, lkeigwin, mbogoman, Sandman70gt, keets, joeykoins, ianrussell (@GC), EagleEye, ThePennyLady, GRANDAM, Ilikecolor, Gluggo, okiedude, Voyageur, LJenkins11, fastfreddie, ms70, pursuitofliberty, ZoidMeister,Coin Finder, GotTheBug, edwardjulio, Coinnmore, Nickpatton, Namvet69,...
Too many to count! Perhaps the worst was a 1976-D type I Ike. It was very very Proof Like and in 66/67. There was another in the same package almost as nice but the better one tarnished and I was unable to remove it.
A "perfect" and highly lustrous '38-D buffalo disappeared and I have no idea what happened to it.
It was a 1908(?) incuse Indian Head five dollar gold piece. It was raw and I graded it at MS62+. It was one of many, many coins that I lost at the same time. I was taking
them to a dealer to sell for cash that I needed for a real estate deal....
Well,....It was early morning and I had my 2 year old granddaughter with me. I was struggling with her and the car seat and I put the coins on the roof(?) of my truck and off we went! When we got to the dealer....NO COINS!!!.....At that point I knew what I had done. I drove back home....... I live in a very rural area and I drove up and down the road all day looking for the coins.....Never found them......I WALKED up and down the road looking for them after that....same result!.... I felt so stupid! It was a minimum $11,000 loss!......What an IDIOT!!!
Stuff Happens.....
Live and Learn.....
PS., I ended up buying the property. It was a duplex condominium...... THEN!!!!.....I got hit with a frivolous lawsuit by some slip and fall lawyer and ended up losing the property in the settlement agreement..... It could have been worse....
MUCH WORSE.....
I should have stopped with the initial loss...
That Deal Was Bad Karma.....From The Start....
What Was I Thinking?...
...It was early morning and I had my 2 year old granddaughter with me. I was struggling with her and the car seat and I put the coins on the roof(?) of my truck and off we went! When we got to the dealer....NO COINS!!!.....At that point I knew what I had done. I drove back home...
It couldda been a million times worse. A woman around here left her baby on top of the car.
I left a really great scale on my roof at the car wash once.
Yes, you are right cladking.....In the big scheme of things my loss was nothing......I'm none the worse for it......
I hesitate to post this.....but maybe, just maybe, it could save a life....
Many years ago around here, a young woman went to visit one of my sons future mother in law.....It was Summer time.....She left her infant baby girl in the car....strapped into the car seat......Well, it was the worst.....tragic.....As if that wasn't bad enough, what could be? What followed next was a travesty upon a tragedy.....
The young mother got a lawyer and blamed the whole thing on my son's mother in law......a case of denial but grief will cause people to do things......
It went to court and of course nothing came of it except that my son's future in-laws moved 1,000 miles away because of all the publicity in the local papers, etc. So sad..So Very, Very Sad....
As far as my loss of coins is concerned?..... It was nothing.....
As my mother used to say, "It's only money."....
Oh, Well.....
P.S., I sincerely apologize if I have diverted this thread in another direction.....
When I was in college I melted and 1903 Austrian gold coin an Israeli Palladium coin and an SAE. I had a friend who worked at Caltech and we were experimenting with thermo-couples. I still have the blobs. We got it too hot and melted the three together. We were able to generate 80W.
That’s actually very interesting. Since you still have the melted blobs I think it’s not a total loss and you now have an interesting conversation piece.
I have an Unc 1923-S Lincoln that's been AWOL for about a year.
Check out my iPhone app SlabReader!
I was driving my grandmother to the grocery store and left a full case of homemade mix tapes on the roof. Never found them, and this was well before the days of music downloads so they were impossible to recreate.
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor