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There was a coin found in the sand that just sold for approximately $808,000.

bidaskbidask Posts: 14,017 ✭✭✭✭✭

It was all the highest graded of its series !!

Can you guess?

I manage money. I earn money. I save money .
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.




Comments

  • hummingbird_coinshummingbird_coins Posts: 1,138 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have a hard time imagining a coin found in the sand to be gem UNC or higher, let alone the highest grade coin in the series! At least of US coins. However, since this is in the US coin forum, I will go out on a limb and say draped bust half dime.

    Young Numismatist • My Toned Coins
    Life is roadblocks. Don't let nothing stop you, 'cause we ain't stopping. - DJ Khaled

  • keyman64keyman64 Posts: 15,507 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Gold?

    "If it's not fun, it's not worth it." - KeyMan64
    Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners. :smile:
  • bidaskbidask Posts: 14,017 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @keyman64 said:
    Gold?

    Colonial gold fair to post on this forum?

    Yes gold !

    This Royal 1715 8 escudos MS-68 sold for 809k (buyer's fee included ):

    https://www.jesusvico.com/es/lote/I170-2723-2723/1015-463-felipe-v

    I manage money. I earn money. I save money .
    I give away money. I collect money.
    I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.




  • keyman64keyman64 Posts: 15,507 ✭✭✭✭✭

    1715 and MS68! That's just wild to me. It's pretty.

    "If it's not fun, it's not worth it." - KeyMan64
    Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners. :smile:
  • Jacques_LoungecoqueJacques_Loungecoque Posts: 733 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Seems like something that just shouldn’t happen. But yet….

    Having fun while switching things up and focusing on a next level PCGS slabbed 1950+ type set, while still looking for great examples for the 7070.

  • sellitstoresellitstore Posts: 2,870 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 5, 2024 8:58AM

    Not much "shipwreck effect" on that one.

    I once owned a beautiful condition orichalcum Roman sesterius of Trajan for which I paid $3500 due to the superb style and condition. I was told that the high state of preservation was due to the fact that it had been buried in Tiber River mud. Two thousand years in shallow mud with no corrosion? Low oxygen environment? Who knows?

    This one must have been packed tightly below the sand resulting in zero movement. Sand is pretty abrasive.

    Collector and dealer in obsolete currency. Always buying all obsolete bank notes and scrip.
  • jdimmickjdimmick Posts: 9,676 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Didnt that contractor guy several years back find a 1817/4 capped half that sold for 100k+ or more in excavation dirt.

  • sellitstoresellitstore Posts: 2,870 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The hoard of early 1840s New Orleans silver found in an excavation there a few years ago were still nice enough to straight grade. Occasionally, coins that come out of the ground aren't negatively impacted but that's usually NOT the case.

    Collector and dealer in obsolete currency. Always buying all obsolete bank notes and scrip.
  • MS66MS66 Posts: 235 ✭✭✭

    "James Owens, of Sand City, California"

    Makes it seem almost inevitable, no?

  • Manifest_DestinyManifest_Destiny Posts: 6,896 ✭✭✭✭✭

    "Found on a beach" might be a cover story.

  • WinLoseWinWinLoseWin Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Manifest_Destiny said:
    "Found on a beach" might be a cover story.

    Could be. Though not sure what the advantage would be in this case. It had a lot of publicity at the time so they would not have avoided the tax man. Recall reading about it in Coin World at the time. It wasn't stolen as it was previously unknown and became the new finest known. And it was not from a hoard as no further ones have become available.

    The only cover story value that comes to mind is something like if it were bought from a little old lady for cheap and finding on a beach makes them look better. Are there other possible reasons for a cover story I'm missing?

    Heritage also mentions "...slightly granular surfaces retain much of their original mint luster" which fits with granular luster seen on either shipwreck or other longterm outdoor exposure. Luster sounds similar to the 1854-S $20 shipwreck coins that started appearing in the 1970's also found off of California. I suppose that could also be a possible reason to have a cover story if it had been part of a shipwreck find involving multiple other coins with the rarity needing a story while more easily sold commoner items just get quietly sold.

    Could not find online the magazines Heritage mentioned as having "detailed accounts of this find". If anyone has info from those that would be interesting. Was it just out in the sand (possibly washed up from shipwreck) or a nearby ground area etc (possibly a one off dropped coin) ?

    "To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin

  • Manifest_DestinyManifest_Destiny Posts: 6,896 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @WinLoseWin said:

    @Manifest_Destiny said:
    "Found on a beach" might be a cover story.

    The only cover story value that comes to mind is something like if it were bought from a little old lady for cheap and finding on a beach makes them look better. Are there other possible reasons for a cover story I'm missing?

    They may have found it on private property. It's just speculation of course.

  • crazyhounddogcrazyhounddog Posts: 13,970 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That’s a lofty grade for any coin found in the sand. I suppose it was delicately laid in the sand, somehow, with zero pressure applied to the coin from above, such as someone stepping on the sand from above the coin. Sand is VERY abrasive. But, there it is with a story🤔

    The bitterness of "Poor Quality" is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
  • WinLoseWinWinLoseWin Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Manifest_Destiny said:

    @WinLoseWin said:

    @Manifest_Destiny said:
    "Found on a beach" might be a cover story.

    The only cover story value that comes to mind is something like if it were bought from a little old lady for cheap and finding on a beach makes them look better. Are there other possible reasons for a cover story I'm missing?

    They may have found it on private property. It's just speculation of course.

    Just realized the Heritage lot description I linked above has readable images of both 1984 magazine articles.

    The Lost Treasures magazine has the most info and mentions that is was found in loose sand after two days of hard rain that appears to have broken up part of a sand bank. The beach was hunted by other people metal detecting so, assuming it's truthfull, they had a right to hunt there.

    Many other interesting details in the articles. Sounds like, and is also the theory of the finder, that it was a one off dropped coin rather than washed in from the ocean.

    The magazine articles appear just before the slab images. I didn't notice them before:

    https://coins.ha.com/itm/territorial-gold/1851-5-schultz-and-co-five-dollar-ms62-pcgs-k-1-high-r6-pcgs-10316-/a/1371-4432.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

    "To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin

  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 24,260 ✭✭✭✭✭

    One of the Brasher Doubloons was found in the sewer.

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • WinLoseWinWinLoseWin Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MrEureka said:
    One of the Brasher Doubloons was found in the sewer.

    Must be a contender for most valuable coin found in ground or water, etc.

    .
    .
    From Heritage roster in lot description of the NGC MS-65 January 2021 auction.

    https://coins.ha.com/itm/colonials/1787-dbln-new-york-style-brasher-doubloon-eb-on-wing-ms65-ngc-cac-w-5840-pcgs-487-/a/1326-3934.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

    .
    .

    1. Jackman-ANS, AU50 details, surface and rim damage, 26.63 grams. Found by unidentified laborers while digging a Philadelphia cellar in 1897; S.H. & H. Chapman (1897); Allison W. Jackman; Jackman Collection (Henry Chapman, 6/1918), lot 140, realized $3,900; Waldo Newcomer Collection (Inventory number 2895, graded as Fine, with a cost of $3,900); Col. E.H.R. Green; William Randolph Hearst; B.G. Johnson; F.C.C. Boyd; New Netherlands Coin Company; Mrs. R. Henry Norweb (1969); American Numismatic Society.
      Note: This coin has often been called the Philadelphia Sewer example, but that is incorrect. The description in the Jackman catalog states it was found by workmen digging a cellar for a building, not a sewer. In his article, "The Philadelphia Gold Hoard of 1872," in the April 2008, issue of The Colonial Newsletter, John Kleeberg noted that the doubloon was found along with "a nickel of 1866 or 1867"; the dirt the laborers dug up was fill that had been used to bring up the level of the street (Chapman 1918, lot 140).

    "To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin

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