Why old coins keep turning up in circulation......

PhillyJoe

Actually this is a sad story. I work for an insurance adjusting company. One of our clients had a horrible house fire a few months ago. We found out he's a coin hoarder in addition to being a collector. A man in his 70's, he had two 4 drawer filing cabinets in his basement full of coins. He's been "collecting" coins for decades. He had dozens of Whitman books of every denomination, hundreds of rolls and 2x2s, mint and proof sets, and boxes of loose coins. The house collapsed into the basement as a result of the fire and only recently recovered what he could. Limited insurance for such a collection. Except for a few personal favorites, he told us today that he took everything to a nearby Commerce bank for face value on Friday. The adjuster handling the loss told me he got a little over $2,000. from the bank which doesn't sound like much. But the $150. in pennies means he turned in 15,000 of those babies alone.

May I suggest we all meet at the Commerce Bank in Willow Grove, PA this week and each buy a bag?

Joe

(P.S. I told our guy on numerous ocassions I would help him any way I could but he never responded. As anyone knows who has been through this, common sense sometimes doesn't always make sense.)

keets

hey joe

when i was in the Navy in '76 i caught a ride on a military hop from Whidbey Island, Washington all the way to Willow Grove, Pa. in a P-3 sub chaser. then i hitchhiked home to Cleveland for 3 days before i flew back to Philly for an overseas flight. quite an experience.

this old gent sounds like he collected for the joy involved and wasn't as in touch with value as most present day collectors. though he probably knew what he had, it didn't matter to him. i'd imagine having you're life swept away by a fire such as he endured puts a perspective on things in a way most of us can't imagine. the value of his hoarding must have taken a back seat to his real loss.

al h.