Do you have any incredible Coin Stories?
Draconiator
Posts: 6
Hi! I'm the new guy, but I wanted to share something with you guys...
Do you guys have any coin stories that are just ABSOLUTELY incredible? Something happenned to me last Thursday that could be considered a pretty awesome story:
(Copied from http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31207&highlight= , originally posted 3/18/04)
I'm asking, because I do as well. I've been collecting for maybe....2 years? Anyway, if any of you do, do you have any INCREDIBLE coin stories? Something happenned to me that could be considered incredible:
Okay, until 2 weeks, ago, I had been on a vacation from collecting Lincoln Wheat pennies, since I was getting tired of looking at brown coins day in and day out. Today I decide to start up again, so I go to Key Bank, and trade in my $10 worth of coins for new coins. What I did not know immediately, was the bank had just given me at LEAST 980 wheat pennies! (There were some Lincoln Memorials in there, and 3 Canadian Dovebacks.) I'm STILL searching through them. The rarest one I've found so far is a plain old 1909, which has a collectors value of $1.25 in G-4 condition. Mine is at LEAST an F-12.
Do you have any amazing stories?
(End copy)
And of course, I did not find any coins rarer than that 1909. In second place on the rarity meter was a 1931, and I found a mess of 1945's and stuff. No 1955 Double Dies either.
I'm gonna have to buy $10 worth of coins, since basically, I need some more *SARCASM*
Do you guys have any coin stories that are just ABSOLUTELY incredible? Something happenned to me last Thursday that could be considered a pretty awesome story:
(Copied from http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31207&highlight= , originally posted 3/18/04)
I'm asking, because I do as well. I've been collecting for maybe....2 years? Anyway, if any of you do, do you have any INCREDIBLE coin stories? Something happenned to me that could be considered incredible:
Okay, until 2 weeks, ago, I had been on a vacation from collecting Lincoln Wheat pennies, since I was getting tired of looking at brown coins day in and day out. Today I decide to start up again, so I go to Key Bank, and trade in my $10 worth of coins for new coins. What I did not know immediately, was the bank had just given me at LEAST 980 wheat pennies! (There were some Lincoln Memorials in there, and 3 Canadian Dovebacks.) I'm STILL searching through them. The rarest one I've found so far is a plain old 1909, which has a collectors value of $1.25 in G-4 condition. Mine is at LEAST an F-12.
Do you have any amazing stories?
(End copy)
And of course, I did not find any coins rarer than that 1909. In second place on the rarity meter was a 1931, and I found a mess of 1945's and stuff. No 1955 Double Dies either.
I'm gonna have to buy $10 worth of coins, since basically, I need some more *SARCASM*
0
Comments
We ARE watching you.
Could you please send him home?
If not, the quarter will do. Just for sentimental reasons of course.
joeyuk, did it have a picture of George Washington on the front? I lost one just like that. PM me for my mailing address. I will pay for return shipping.
Our eBay auctions - TRUE auctions: start at $0.01, no reserve, 30 day unconditional return privilege & free shipping!
I was parking on campus, going to class, and realized that I just didn't want damaged coins, let alone a holed coin. So being the smart alek that I am, I put it in the parking meter. Makes me laugh to this day thinking about what the meter collector or the bank teller thought of that one.
--Severian the Lame
Okay, that's pretty cool.
Diving into this hobby is like diving into a pool with no ladder; it's extremely hard to get out.
Poetic Justice: the scammer who scammed himself
Another of my longwinded tales, as reproduced on Carl's website:
How I got two genuine 1877 Indian cents for eight bucks
(Sam, aka "cladking", figures into the tale.)
Now that would be something!
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Registry 1909-1958 Proof Lincolns
That's what turned me on to coins.
MFS
I carry several years worth of 'em, around my waistline...
While not coins per se ( Like Morgans or Peace dollars ), when I was in Toronto, Canada a few months ago on vacation, I stopped into a coin/bullion shop. About being there for about 5 minutes, A fresh shipment of Canadian Bullion was delivered. Silver, Gold, and Platnium Bullion coins and bars where brought in in about 3 or so dozen boxes full of them. The owner had three different receipts and signed two of them in front of me. One receipt said around 32,000 Canadin Dollars ( about $ 24,000 US ) and the other I seen was around 46,000 Canadian Dollars ( about $34,000 US ). I estimate the shipment based on the two receipts and the one I didn`t see was around 100,000 Canadian Dollars ( about $73,000 US ).
<< <i>I was at work having just an ordinary blah day until lunch time. I deposited a dollar bill into the vending machine and in return got my 50 cents change. Upon picking up the change I noticed the change sounded different. I looked closer and to my surprise a nice 1932 quarter was in my palm. I quicky put it away and when I got home examined it further and to my amazement it had an S on the reverse! I got a $200 dollar coin in change for a dollar! >>
Now that's an incredible find! I'd be buyin' a lot of sodas, or chips, or whatever it was. Junk food for lunch for the rest of the week!
To thank it for saving my life, I drilled a hole through it and sent it to LordMarcovan.
Welcome to the forum, Draconiator! It will get easy to identify which of us around here have too much time on our hands.
Clankeye
The proprietor said: "Well, there's another shop about two blocks down and six blocks over - but the owner is kind of a jerk".
I figured, well, if I can cherrypick something at that shop, and the dealer really is a jerk, then so much the better. So I drove over there. When I pulled up, the whole front of the shop had metal grating across the windows - it looked like a pawn shop. I walked up to the door and a guy standing outside said: "you commin' in, were closing in five minutes ?". I said ok, but I could sense his "jerk" attitude already.
So I go in and look around. Nothing particulary interesting and nothing priced right. There was a customer haggling over selling some sterling flatware to the shop. I could tell that they were going to be at it for a lot longer than five minutes.
I finally saw one thing that caught my eye. A modern 5-oz silver bar with a nice New Mexico design. He said it was not for sale. Of course. The only thing in the whole store that I was interested in is not for sale. So I start making my way to the door. Just then a fellow comes walking in, with long scraggly hair, a Red Book in one hand, and his other hand in his pocket. Something told me to stay for a minute and see what was up. He walked up the the counter and said, "excuse me sir, I have a few coins I need to sell". He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few loose coins. The "jerk" (dope) just stood there right in front of him and said "no, we're not interested". The other guy said "I really need to sell them, are there any other coin shops around here. The jerk said "yea, but they're closed now" (that was true - it was about 5:00 PM).
I was standing about 8 feet away during this. Fortunately, I have pretty good eyesight. I could see the coins in the man's hand - a couple Mercury Dimes and a couple Standing Liberty quarters. But what really caught my eye was the distinct appearance of "cartwheel" mint luster on the quarters !
The man left. I thought "what am I doing in here ?". I followed him out into the parking lot. I said "hey, I might be interested in buying those coins". The man said ok, here take a look at them. I proceeded to take a look through the coins - mostly loose in small (old) cardboard boxes. There were about a dozen coins in all. I was somewhat suspicious and asked where he got them and why was he selling. He said his grandfather operated a bar and a bakery in Wisconsin years ago and he inheritied all his grandfather's coins. He needed to sell them to get his tools out of a pawn shop to finish a handyman job he promised to do that weekend. I had no evidence to doubt that. The fact that the coins were not in holders indicated to me that they had probably never been in a collection.
He knew some about coins (from his Red Book). I offered him prices that were bargains for me, but not totally out of line for the situation. After all, here I was buying coins from a guy in a junky old van in a trashy parking lot ! I'm sure I offered more than either coin shop would have given him. Then he said that he needed CASH immediately, and cash only. I didn't have it. He wouldn't sell them without a cash payment. We both drove to a bank that was still open and I was able to get the $900 on my credit card.
I later sent some of the coins in for grading (PCGS/NGC/ICG). The best ones were:
1919-D 10c MS61
1920 10c MS65 FB
1919-S 25c AU53
1920 25c MS63
1920-D 25c MS61
1920-D 25c MS62
1917-D (reverse) 50c AU58 (light scratch)
He thanked me for the cash and as I was about to leave, he said the most amazing thing. He said that he still had about "800 pounds of coins" ! I then asked if I could see them. He said to call in a month or so and then maybe.
A month later, back at home, I called him. He said he had to go out of state to do a job. So I waited another month. Nope. Then another month. Still no. At one point I talked to his Dad who happend to be at the house when I called. I got the impression that the real story was that he was in drug rehab. Maybe he needed cash that one day to pay off "debts".
About six months later we finally set up a time to visit. I travelled to his house with a friend of mine. The house was reasonably well-kept. But he had two Pit Bulls, a Doberman, and a Rotweiller. I then knew how he was able to keep 800 pounds of coins at his house without getting burglarized. He told me how one time one of the pit bulls took off a delivery man's kneecap. I don't see how they would let the dog live if it did that. But the dogs weren't vicious towards me, at least.
Anyway, it turned out that the vast majority of the "800 pounds" of coins were Memorial cents from the early 1960's - not the bags of AU/UNC Standing Liberty quarters I had dreamed of. It took a couple days to look through all the coins. Once in a while, we'd find a 1909-S or something like that in a box of common wheat cents. A couple times he brought out a small cardboard box with the real interesting coins - like a few more AU/UNC Mercury dimes from the teens.
He told me that he had traded 25 of the nicest Standing Liberty quarters and a 3-legged Buffalo Nickel to his drug dealer (before I had met him the first time).
He was actually a nice guy. I talked to him for quite a while about the drug thing, and I think I helped him realize how stupid it all really was. That drug dealer had taken him "to the cleaners" I'm sure. He knew it was stupid and was trying to get away from that scene. I hope he did.
He didn't want to sell all his coins (and I didn't want all the pennies). So I ended up buying about $2500 worth. A lot of that was common circulated 90% "junk" silver, but a few better coins and some AU Walking Liberty Halves from the 40s. I gave him higher prices than at the first parking lot encounter. Buried in one of the boxes of pennies was an old "good for one drink" token from a Wisconsin bar.
I haven't had any contact with him since.
johnk
First: I have gone to the bank and purchased a couple thousand dollars worth of half dollars at about $300 at a time. I have over 140 either 40% or 90% silver halves including 13 walkers, 28 Frankies and the rest Kennedys.
Second: I've established a rapport with a couple bank tellers, just like the big paper money dealers have. I've got a few nice bills, but, here's the best part. When I went to get some more halves, the teller told me she set aside a rill of Kennedys but it was twice as long. She said a customer brought it in and it didn't fit in her regular half box. She gave it to me and I saw the date: 25 Mar 1965. It was a un-opened roll of 40 brand new Kennedies from 1964! I gave her the $20 for the roll and a $20 "tip"!
<< <i>winning a years' worth of Big Macs >>
Exactly how do they define a year's worth of Big Macs? A year's worth for me would be three or four year's worth for a normal person.
Russ, NCNE
I've been meaning to post a message here asking for contributions of true stories as I'd like to build a library of them in case Beth takes me up on my concept. Its still a few months from the decision stage as they have some other things going on there right now, but if you'd like to share a short story and potentially see it appear in Coin World, drop me a PM or post it on the board. As I see interesting items pop-up here, don't be surprised to get a message from me asking for some more details. If you want to participate, great! If not, that's cool too. I'm a numismatist first and would just like to see some of our intersting tales shared with others.
Ron (Veep)
Best,
BR