Have you ever accidentally spent a rare and valuable coin?

Singapore

If yes, please let us know if it was raw or slabbed.

gmarguli

If yes, please let us know if it was raw or slabbed.

How would you accidently spend a slabbed coin?

Placid

I tried to stick a acg slab in a vending machine once but it wouldn't fit

mbbiker

If you count proof coins then Yes i have.

ara

Not accidentally. I would think that a trade (which in a way could be viewed as spending a collectible coin) for another collectible coin happens all the time (raw and slabbed).

tjkillian

I seem to remember that a board member actually claimed to have spent a slabbed coin, something like a Sac dollar.

Tom

paigowjohnny

Wouldn't necessarily call them "rare and valuable", but I still catch hell from my dad for this....

As a young grade school lad in the late 60s, I had quite the crush on a girl in my class. Too shy and embarassed to call her from home in front of my family, I snuck off to a local pay phone. Now being such a youngster, I didn't have spare change...so I raided my dad's jar of Mercury dimes that he had on his dresser to satisfy my juvenile primal lust.

( Dad was a banker and made a killing culling silver out of change...sold most of it at the market highs when the Hunts tried to corner the market....but he just won't let me forget those dimes all these years later...no rare dates)

pontiacinf

pat um i mean Braddick used a slabbed sac for coffee one morning...

and my co-worker sold me her change for 2.50 that had a 82-no p in it


doh

nwcs

Never spent a slab before. Can't carry more than 2 in my pocket without someone giving me a joke like, "are those slabs in your pocket or have you just been to a coin show?"

But I have never spent anything that is valuable that I know of. I know I have never spent silver and I know I have never spent anything I wanted to save. As for the rest, I don't know what I spent so I can say I haven't spent anything I saw I wanted to keep.

Oak

No I haven't, but I got a great story on one.

I was at a local sleezebag's pawn/coin shop one day seeing what he had and he told me about a guy that had just called 10 minutes earlier, "claiming" to have found a double headed penny with George Washington on it. But it had no date. I laughed my a$$ off. That is a coin made around 1783 and there are probably less than 1,000 of 'em. Kieferscoin had a nice example of one.

I immediately left and called all the coin shops and buyers in the area and descibed it to them and told them it was accidently spent and I had a reward out for it. I imagine that is pretty close to the truth and that there was no way to find the original owner. I would have loved to have had that coin just for the story. I wonder what other coins were put into circulation by the same person.

Oak

I left out the best part. Sleezebag told the caller that there was no such coin and he probably had a magic coin.

clackamas

Many of have probably spent a DDO of some type at one time or another. How would you know you spent a valuable coin? Would you not keep it if it were valuable?

Petescorner

I spend high grade State Quarters all the time.

JoyofCollecting

No...but I did hear a funny story a couple of months ago about a fellow that dropped one of his slabs in the bathtub....certainly that has to be right up there......

coppercoins

<< <i>Many of have probably spent a DDO of some type at one time or another. How would you know you spent a valuable coin? Would you not keep it if it were valuable? >>



Judging from the number of them I have that are at least lightly circulated or by the fact that many of the more recent ones I have came from the bank, you're very right.

kobrakoins

No but i found a 52 proof lincoln

RGL

Nah, because the cashiers get out of sorts (alternative word for the flagged and banned word beginning with b and ending with itchy) because there's no room in the change drawer slots ...

DesertLizard

As a kid I spent a 1933 $20 St Gaudens on a catcher's mitt. Was that a rare coin?

SarasotaFrank

I put a trick quarter in a vending machine once. It was drilled out and hinged so you could pass a cigarette through it.

darktone

Back when the 1984 double die cents were first discovered I found several and I some how managed to lose them. mike

cladking

Shortly before I had any interest in moderns in 1972 I had a very recent issue
quarter with pronounced reverse doubling. I was thirsty and intentionally put
it in a pop machine. The '71 issue is very rare ("2" known) and the '72 issue is
quite scarce (about "12" known). Don't remember the date though.

homerunhall

At an ANA convention in Los Angeles 7 or 8 years ago, we actually "spent" a lot of rare coins with local businesses, including a lot of wheat cents, Buffalo nickels, pre-1965 silver coins, and even a circ 1909-S VDB penny. We did it to help promote the ANA. We started the program with the help of Dr. Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and an avid coin collector. Dr. Buss and I went into a local convenience store and he bought a Gatorade and paid for it with silver coins and a S VDB. It was a lot of fun!

I know a few coin dealers who promote coin collecting in their areas by spending Wheaties and occassional silver coins.

MastaHanky

The the 2000 ANA Money show here in Salt Lake City, three 1914-D Lincolns were put in circulation. The news and newspapers advertised it heavily, saying that anybody who found one of them could bring it in and collect $100.

Thenewguy

You mean your not supposed to spend the ones in the big plastic holders? I thought they were in there just to make them easy to get out of your pocket.
TNG

CharlieB

This happened. My dad worked with a fellow who had a circulated 1916
st. lib quarter. He was not a collector but knew its value. He kept it
in his wallet and use to show it to people. My dad of course
wanted to buy it since he collected. Another collector he worked with
bugged him all the time as well. The man said he would never sell it.
He was right. He never sold it because months later he lost his wallet and his coin.

MacCoin

I don't think so. I have a hard time spending a commom cirulated wheatie.

BillJones

Back in the early in the early 1960s I found a 1919-S half dollar in circulation in VG to Fine condition. At the time the Red Book said it was worth $35 in Fine. I laid it on a table, and my dad picked it up and spent it. Needless to say my coins stayed in Whitman folders in in my bedroom from then on!

Spudmasher

I knowingly spent an 1881-CC dollar in VG in the early 60's on a banana split in Arlington, Va. But then silver dollars were pretty common then although not the CC's in circulation.

anoldgoat

As a kid i put a 1955 DDO in a bubble gum machine. I thought it was counterfit.