Greatest/Rarest Finds In The Wild?

CalifornianKing

I saw a post a bit ago (was the one about how not all good coins are slabbed, etc), and started wondering. What stories/finds do you have "in the wild" (i.e either someone brought it to you, or you found it in someones collection when they didn't know what they had)?

I've heard a lot of great stories from you old hands (and I don't mean that in a "old" as in age way, I mean people who have been in the coin trade for a while, though most of them are old, no offense, I'm 19, so everyone here basically is old to me ), and would love to hear more.

DeplorableDan

@Floridafacelifter has a couple good ones

GaCoinGuy

My favorite find, and the one that got me into collecting was an 1859 IHC that was so beat up and silvery colored, it got passed as a dime. Found a 1914 dime in change once. Not a huge find monetarily, but cool to me.

CalifornianKing

@GaCoinGuy said:
My favorite find, and the one that got me into collecting was an 1859 IHC that was so beat up and silvery colored, it got passed as a dime. Found a 1914D dime in change once. Not a huge find monetarily, but cool to me.

COOL!

What got me into collecting was getting a 1939 (think D) wheatie in circulation as change. I also got a 1949 and a few others when I was younger, and it got me interested.

Ownerofawheatiehorde

I remember a story of Us gold 2.5 in a box of world coins. There was an auction, and you were allowed to sift through the coins before bidding. My friend and one other guy had saw it, and started having a bidding war. Unfortunately, he lost but imagine the auctioneer’s face when it sold!

CalifornianKing

@Ownerofawheatiehorde said:
I remember a story of Us gold 2.5 in a box of world coins. There was an auction, and you were allowed to sift through the coins before bidding. My friend and one other guy had saw it, and started having a bidding war. Unfortunately, he lost but imagine the auctioneer’s face when it sold!

"Why did it sell for so much??"

pulls out shiny gold coin, bites it infront of auctioneer, watches his jaw drop

OPA

@Ownerofawheatiehorde said:
I remember a story of Us gold 2.5 in a box of world coins. There was an auction, and you were allowed to sift through the coins before bidding. My friend and one other guy had saw it, and started having a bidding war. Unfortunately, he lost but imagine the auctioneer’s face when it sold!

Most likely a Chinese counterfeit.

Elcontador

When I was little, silver coins were still circulating. I found a 1932 S quarter in VG 10 in change. Still have it. When I was even smaller, I would find an odd IHC, Liberty Nickel, Barber Dime and Quarter in change as well. Also found a 24 S Nickel in VF 20 in change.
I found most 09-40 Lincoln Cents, most Buffalo Nickels and Mercury Dimes, and a few SLqs in change.

Flash forward, 15 years ago I got a 53 S Cent that would grade MS 65 RD in change. A year ago, I found a beat up 1907 D Dime in a coin star.

seanq

I distinctly remember a roll hunter back in the days of rec.collecting.coins posting about finding a classic gold $5 in a roll of halves sourced from a bank. While in high school in the late 1980s I rescued almost a full roll of semi-key Jefferson nickels (1938-D and -S, 1939-D and -S) from the till at the parts store where I worked.

Sean Reynolds

gonzer

(Old story here) While roll searching in 1973 I found a 1969-S double die, the big one, that would probably grade out at XF today.

Allentram

About 20 years ago a friend invited me to go through a couple of coin jars he inherited from his dad. It was mostly silver from the 1950s and 1960s, but among them was a 1913-S Type 2 Buffalo Nickel. I paid a fair price, sent it to PCGS and made F-15. I still have it today.

OAKSTAR

Back in 2019 and 2020, I was finding boatloads of W quarters roll hunting from boxes. Not sure if you would consider that in the wild. But they were the greatest and rarest finds for me. They paid for all my key dates and completed several albums. It was an absolute windfall. Like winning the lottery.

seatedlib3991

I have told this before and I'm not sure if you just want stories of coins we found or bought  but I was a teen once too.  This happened when I was 16/17.
 I was a Fuller Brush salesman (door to door sales).  The way it worked though is you only got paid if you actually COLLECTED the money.  I went to a house to collect on a sale of about 35 dollars.  The woman who opened the door was openly weeping.  I gave her my brightest good news your Fuller Brush order is here.  She cried louder.  She also should me a letter from the bank telling her they would no longer honor her checks.   Turned out her husband had died recently and she was financially lost.  Before I could leave though she asked if I would accept change for a bottle of Witch Hazel(hand lotion).
 The next thing I  know she is trying to pay me 3 dollars in what looked like high grade Barber proof half dollars.  I tried to tell her these were valuable coins but she just looked at me like I was insane.  I convinced her to show me some of her husbands coins and soon discovered she had hundreds of very high grade Seated and Barber coins.  I had to run home (About 30 miles round trip) and bring her a copy of a magazine called Coin Prices to show her what I was talking about.
 These coins were way our of my ballpark so I decided to try and call someone in one of the adverts to get an appraisal going.  My first try was a dealer on the West Coast.  30 seconds in he demanded to know if I was a kid and then started swearing and ordered me to never call again.  Next I tried an East Coast dealer and he was EXETREMELY rude.  Finally I called the only dealer I had personally done business with, Jake's Marketplace in Chicago.  That guy told me to just sit tight and we would get a call back in 10 or 15 minutes (he knew a guy).  That guy had me describe a number of the coins and albums the husband had owned.  (I assure you these were the rarest and finest coins I had ever seen and are still the tops today and I am 62.)
 Finally the guy asked if that was everything.  I called to the woman over my shoulder if that was everything.  she said, "I suppose you would like to see the coins in the big safe too."  The guy on the phone heard her, took the Lords name in vain and then asked to speak with her directly.
 Long story short I got a post dated check for my fuller brush order.  The next time I called she had a brand new Caddy sitting in the driveway and she never ordered a single thing from me again.  No good deed goes unpunished.  james

Conshyboy

Had gotten these two coins in change at 2 different convenience stores

redraider

I found this Judd-300 Pattern cent raw at a shop and marked as a regular proof! It has a reeded edge. This was last year. It graded PF65.

SanctionII

I bought a 1961 proof set for $25.00 that, unknown to me, contained the big DDR half. I was very surprised to find that coin in the OGP when I looked closely at the set a few hours later.

Not a find that makes big headlines, but still a great find.

jmlanzaf

A silver center cent walked into the LCS about 18 years ago. It had been in the family for 200+ years.

Lakesammman

A silver center cent walked into the LCS about 18 years ago. It had been in the family for 200+ years.

Can we assume the customer was educated about the value and treated fairly??

No major discoveries here - love the story about the J300!

jfriedm56

@jmlanzaf said:
A silver center cent walked into the LCS about 18 years ago. It had been in the family for 200+ years.

Heard this story about 15 years ago when talking to a local coin dealer. He said the family was local-Rochester, New York.

Tomthemailcarrier

Back in the 1960’s when I was about 10 years old I found a tin box in my grandmother’s attic that contained an 1814 & 1834 half dollar, two 3 cent pieces from the 1860’s and a 1907 Indian head cent.

jfriedm56

Friend of mine from work had a large box filled with Lincoln wheat cents she asked me to look through since she knew I collected coins and currency. Not 10 minutes into looking at the coins I spotted a very well worn cent and read the date of 1909 with the S mintmark. So in my head I said no way, flipped it over and bingo- VDB is right there. Looked like a fine 12 to me and told her it was worth 5 to 6 hundred dollars at the time . We were both thrilled!

erwindoc

I live in a relatively coinshop poor area in the Appalachian region. I do get to one that is about 45 minutes away a couple of times a year. At one of my visits recently, the dealer/owner was slow and I asked him if he had any cool coins come in recently. He smiled and pulled out a box. Story goes that an old collector in the region died. His heirs had brought in several coins for sale. In the collection were several early proof coins. He told me that most were spotted and hairlined but this one was absolutely the best! He sent it in for grading and planned to pass it down in his own family after he acquired it from the former collectors family.

DeplorableDan

@Eldorado9 👀^^

Conshyboy

Had a friend one time on an excavating underground parking lot in center city Killadelphia and found what looked like a flowing hair large cent it was still caked in dirt but I could see part of the hair which appeared to be in pretty good shape told me he found it 17 ft. Below street level offered to toothpick it for him but he was afraid to touch I should see if he still has it

rhedden

A friend I had in the late 1990s brought me a little Sucrets box filled with inherited coins. Inside it were 1852 and 1857 quarter eagles in really nice AU58 and an 1874-P Seated 25c is wholesome, original AU58/MS62. They were mixed in with the usual heavily circulated 19th century pocket change. I stapled up his three finds in 2x2 holders so they'd cease banging around with the other stuff in the box.

Another friend in my undergraduate college days brought his aunt's coins for me to look over. There were lots of cheap coins, no better than circ. Morgan and Peace dollars in the silver melt category. When we got to the very last coin, he said, "what's this piece of junk worth?" He literally tossed it across the table at me, and I had to catch a heavily tarnished but Unc. 1918-D Walker. I had good reflexes back then.

jfriedm56

So far, my best find ever. When Morgan and Peace dollars were so common I bought them at less than $10. a piece in uncirculated, in a dealer’s bulk silver dollar box.

jdimmick

Several years back, guy had called and said he found an 1824 large cent in an old building tearout downtown. He came in with it, and it was dirty and dusky, but looked half way nicely detailed. he wanted 300 for it, so I bought it, hoping it would clean up a bit. AU was around like 500 or so. Worked on it for several weeks lightly taking the dirt and crud away. Once I got the dirt off, low and behold it looked like a nice 58, loads of luster, and an overdate 24/2 to boot. Sent it to pcgs , and after several weeks I get a notifcation that a coin of mine in a submission is valued higher than the service type. Turned out it was the 24/2, pcgs graded it ms-62 putting it up into condition census. Ended up consigning it to Ian, and it did well.

Funny thing is, the guy who brough it in told me, he was going to clean it up himself and put laquer on it and mount it to his guitar. thankfully he didn't.

jmlanzaf

@jfriedm56 said:

@jmlanzaf said:
A silver center cent walked into the LCS about 18 years ago. It had been in the family for 200+ years.

Heard this story about 15 years ago when talking to a local coin dealer. He said the family was local-Rochester, New York.

Yes. Correct.

I believe it was the Wolcott family. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence who settled just east of Rochester.

The dealer guided them to the ANA which I think was in Pittsburgh that year (about 5 hour drive). They sold it with the year at auction. The dealer still had the auction catalog that was gifted to them by the family.

jfriedm56

@jmlanzaf said:

@jfriedm56 said:

@jmlanzaf said:
A silver center cent walked into the LCS about 18 years ago. It had been in the family for 200+ years.

Heard this story about 15 years ago when talking to a local coin dealer. He said the family was local-Rochester, New York.

Yes. Correct.

I believe it was the Wolcott family. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence who settled just east of Rochester.

The dealer guided them to the ANA which I think was in Pittsburgh that year (about 5 hour drive). They sold it with the year at auction. The dealer still had the auction catalog that was gifted to them by the family.

Thanks for the additional information. I believe there was an article in Coin World magazine written about this story too.

AUandAG

My best was a group of 3 Morgan dollars I got off ebay for under $800. Early in 2014. One of the three was a 1888-o Scarface that I had PCGS grade: MS63. Sold on Great Collections shortly thereafter for $10,005. It was from a seller in Portland, OR, that appeared to have a brick and mortar "collectibles" store.
bob
vegas baby!
https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/184550/1888-O-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-Scar-Face-PCGS-MS-63-CAC

jfriedm56

@AUandAG said:
My best was a group of 3 Morgan dollars I got off ebay for under $800. Early in 2014. One of the three was a 1888-o Scarface that I had PCGS grade: MS63. Sold on Great Collections shortly thereafter for $10,005. It was from a seller in Portland, OR, that appeared to have a brick and mortar "collectibles" store.
bob
vegas baby!
https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/184550/1888-O-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-Scar-Face-PCGS-MS-63-CAC

AuandAg, great story. Looks like your 1888-O Scarface is a late die state H8, 2 stages from the terminal die state- H10.

Jobessi

Found this beauty (I zoomed in on the pic) amongst a bulk lots of SLQ's and Silver halves. I know it's hard to tell from the seller pic, but ended up being what I thought it was. A 1916 SLQ! The coin has since been sold, but I'll try and fins the one I took of it.

CalifornianKing

@Elcontador said:
When I was little, silver coins were still circulating. I found a 1932 S quarter in VG 10 in change. Still have it. When I was even smaller, I would find an odd IHC, Liberty Nickel, Barber Dime and Quarter in change as well. Also found a 24 S Nickel in VF 20 in change.
I found most 09-40 Lincoln Cents, most Buffalo Nickels and Mercury Dimes, and a few SLqs in change.

Flash forward, 15 years ago I got a 53 S Cent that would grade MS 65 RD in change. A year ago, I found a beat up 1907 D Dime in a coin star.

Interesting!! You must be really old (no offense). Such an exciting time!

Veep

There have been many finds but here are a few:

Proof Hawaii quarter out of a lady’s attic auctioned for $10k

1916 SLQ that became slabbed as an MS65 and sold at auction for almost $30k

A bag of junk silver quarters that had five 1932-D that later slabbed as 61’s and 62’s

CalifornianKing

@seatedlib3991 said:
I have told this before and I'm not sure if you just want stories of coins we found or bought but I was a teen once too. This happened when I was 16/17.
I was a Fuller Brush salesman (door to door sales). The way it worked though is you only got paid if you actually COLLECTED the money. I went to a house to collect on a sale of about 35 dollars. The woman who opened the door was openly weeping. I gave her my brightest good news your Fuller Brush order is here. She cried louder. She also should me a letter from the bank telling her they would no longer honor her checks. Turned out her husband had died recently and she was financially lost. Before I could leave though she asked if I would accept change for a bottle of Witch Hazel(hand lotion).
The next thing I know she is trying to pay me 3 dollars in what looked like high grade Barber proof half dollars. I tried to tell her these were valuable coins but she just looked at me like I was insane. I convinced her to show me some of her husbands coins and soon discovered she had hundreds of very high grade Seated and Barber coins. I had to run home (About 30 miles round trip) and bring her a copy of a magazine called Coin Prices to show her what I was talking about.
These coins were way our of my ballpark so I decided to try and call someone in one of the adverts to get an appraisal going. My first try was a dealer on the West Coast. 30 seconds in he demanded to know if I was a kid and then started swearing and ordered me to never call again. Next I tried an East Coast dealer and he was EXETREMELY rude. Finally I called the only dealer I had personally done business with, Jake's Marketplace in Chicago. That guy told me to just sit tight and we would get a call back in 10 or 15 minutes (he knew a guy). That guy had me describe a number of the coins and albums the husband had owned. (I assure you these were the rarest and finest coins I had ever seen and are still the tops today and I am 62.)
Finally the guy asked if that was everything. I called to the woman over my shoulder if that was everything. she said, "I suppose you would like to see the coins in the big safe too." The guy on the phone heard her, took the Lords name in vain and then asked to speak with her directly.
Long story short I got a post dated check for my fuller brush order. The next time I called she had a brand new Caddy sitting in the driveway and she never ordered a single thing from me again. No good deed goes unpunished. james

Wow! Yes! I do love all of these stories. Bought, or found, or even seen!

CalifornianKing

@redraider said:
I found this Judd-300 Pattern cent raw at a shop and marked as a regular proof! It has a reeded edge. This was last year. It graded PF65.

Woah

CalifornianKing

@jmlanzaf said:
A silver center cent walked into the LCS about 18 years ago. It had been in the family for 200+ years.

Do you have a picture of it? What condition was it in?

CalifornianKing

@Tomthemailcarrier said:
Back in the 1960’s when I was about 10 years old I found a tin box in my grandmother’s attic that contained an 1814 & 1834 half dollar, two 3 cent pieces from the 1860’s and a 1907 Indian head cent.

OHH!! What a dream come true!

CalifornianKing

@erwindoc said:
I live in a relatively coinshop poor area in the Appalachian region. I do get to one that is about 45 minutes away a couple of times a year. At one of my visits recently, the dealer/owner was slow and I asked him if he had any cool coins come in recently. He smiled and pulled out a box. Story goes that an old collector in the region died. His heirs had brought in several coins for sale. In the collection were several early proof coins. He told me that most were spotted and hairlined but this one was absolutely the best! He sent it in for grading and planned to pass it down in his own family after he acquired it from the former collectors family.

WOW! What a stunner. What's it's value? Wanna sell (contingent on price, I don't have 5k lying around lol)?

CalifornianKing

@jfriedm56 said:
So far, my best find ever. When Morgan and Peace dollars were so common I bought them at less than $10. a piece in uncirculated, in a dealer’s bulk silver dollar box.

Nice find!

CalifornianKing

@Veep said:
There have been many finds but here are a few:

Proof Hawaii quarter out of a lady’s attic auctioned for $10k

1916 SLQ that became slabbed as an MS65 and sold at auction for almost $30k

A bag of junk silver quarters that had five 1932-D that later slabbed as 61’s and 62’s

Nice!!!!

humanssuck

I had a distant relative who had a collection that had been passed down to them that had been collected in the 1950's. It had a lot of nice circulated barber coinage as well as nice AU later year buffalo nickels and walkers pulled from circulation. The nicest coin was this:

crazyhounddog

This 1916-d I found listed for $200 bucks and I bought it immediately, it was raw. The strike was amazing to say the very least. I sent it in to our host and graded 66. One of my favorite scores. I sold the coin for 9k.

IkesT

@Jobessi said:
Found this beauty (I zoomed in on the pic) amongst a bulk lots of SLQ's and Silver halves. I know it's hard to tell from the seller pic, but ended up being what I thought it was. A 1916 SLQ! The coin has since been sold, but I'll try and fins the one I took of it.

That is very clearly a 1917. The honest thing to do would be to give the buyer their money back.

lermish

@CalifornianKing said:

@erwindoc said:
I live in a relatively coinshop poor area in the Appalachian region. I do get to one that is about 45 minutes away a couple of times a year. At one of my visits recently, the dealer/owner was slow and I asked him if he had any cool coins come in recently. He smiled and pulled out a box. Story goes that an old collector in the region died. His heirs had brought in several coins for sale. In the collection were several early proof coins. He told me that most were spotted and hairlined but this one was absolutely the best! He sent it in for grading and planned to pass it down in his own family after he acquired it from the former collectors family.

WOW! What a stunner. What's it's value? Wanna sell (contingent on price, I don't have 5k lying around lol)?

Lol, $5k? You're missing a digit.

CalifornianKing

@lermish said:

@CalifornianKing said:

@erwindoc said:
I live in a relatively coinshop poor area in the Appalachian region. I do get to one that is about 45 minutes away a couple of times a year. At one of my visits recently, the dealer/owner was slow and I asked him if he had any cool coins come in recently. He smiled and pulled out a box. Story goes that an old collector in the region died. His heirs had brought in several coins for sale. In the collection were several early proof coins. He told me that most were spotted and hairlined but this one was absolutely the best! He sent it in for grading and planned to pass it down in his own family after he acquired it from the former collectors family.

WOW! What a stunner. What's it's value? Wanna sell (contingent on price, I don't have 5k lying around lol)?

Lol, $5k? You're missing a digit.

Oof. IDK the grade, or if that particular one is a key, but its still pretty.

jfriedm56

Purchased this coin raw, back in the 70’s when I was a senior in college from another student who lived on my floor. Said it was his grandfathers and he had inherited it and would sell it to me for $200. That may seem a ridiculously low amount now, but a lot for a college kid in the 70’s. Especially when beers were 50 cents.

Meltdown

A friend of mine at work asked me to look through a few gold coins her grandfather had stashed away for decades. Inside a small jewelry box were a few Olympic commemorative gold coins, 2 common $5 gold pieces and two $10 gold pieces.
One of them happened to be this 1856-O in a capital plastic holder... with a small, original mintage of only 20k and only about 100 estimated to survive today if I remember correctly. The photo's don't really do the fields justice... very flashy and mirror like.
I helped her have it graded and sold it through GC where it reached 10k at auction. PCGS graded it AU58.
Needless to say, she was very happy.
.

CalifornianKing

@humanssuck said:
I had a distant relative who had a collection that had been passed down to them that had been collected in the 1950's. It had a lot of nice circulated barber coinage as well as nice AU later year buffalo nickels and walkers pulled from circulation. The nicest coin was this:

nice!

CalifornianKing

@jfriedm56 said:
Purchased this coin raw, back in the 70’s when I was a senior in college from another student who lived on my floor. Said it was his grandfathers and he had inherited it and would sell it to me for $200. That may seem a ridiculously low amount now, but a lot for a college kid in the 70’s. Especially when beers were 50 cents.

WOW! Nice!!!

privatecoin

My best is still a 1964 pr67dcam kennedy accented hair. Out of a 30$ proof set.