Tell us your stories of looking through a coin "hoard", "accumulation" or.......

SanctionII

.........."collection". It could be a group of coins passed down to you from a deceased family member, a group of coins in the possession of another person who lets you inspect them, a bulk purchase you made or a treasure trove you found.

Details, details, give us details. I am interested in hearing these types of stories since I have minimal motivation to work this afternoon.

kiyote

The only chance I ever had to do something like that was when I looked through a coffee can filled with silver half dollars, all Walking Libertys, grading no better than VF that a friend's grandfather had hoarded from circulation. There were some dates from the 20s, but mostly they were later date stuff.

morganbarber

My father used to buy bags of $1000 face value 90% junk silver as an investment(obsession?) I would beg to go through and look for better dates. I once found an 1892-O Barber half. When he died a few years ago, he had few paper assets but did have $12000 face value in silver. I had already been through some of the bags, but they were not marked so I had to do them all over again. I found high end EF Walkers, a mostly complete Washington set (no 32-d or s), a complete set of Franklins, and a complete set of Roosies, not to mention many Barbers of various denominations and worn, better date, Walkers. I'll tell you, Bags of halves are a blast, bags of quarters are quite doable, but try searching $4000 or $5000 face value in dimes is a really trying experience.

skingspan

Last year my father in law gave me a box of old "Russian" coins that belonged to his father who was a driver for a family member of Civil war General Ben Butler. Not sure if these coins belonged to him but it is possible. In the box were a bunch of large russian copper Kopeks from the 1700s as well as two us coins. A fugio cent in VG and a civil war token with a saying on it that is connected to Butler. Pretty cool finds I thought.

Barndog

I recently got a request to help out an old (94 years) gentleman and look at his collection. I wrote about it here after it happened, but will recap to help alleviate your aversion to work.

The man had a lot of nothing: later date wheat cents (with eraser marks on the date so they were easier to read), lots of state quarters, some buttons, and about thirty nickels pulled from circulation. These were the treasures his wife had put away during a couple years before she passed away. He also had two modern, slabbed US gold bullion coins. It was a worthwhile trip because I learned about the way he got the gold and was able to steer him clear of it in the future. Seems some outfit out of Austin, TX passing itself as a pseudo-government agency preyed on him with the usual sales pitch to sell him this slabbed bullion at two to three times its value. As upset as the gentleman was that he had been ripped off, he did have some solace in knowing that he wouldn't make that mistake again. I was glad to have helped him, but sure wish he had some coins that were close to his age.

66Tbird

Went through and still have about 300 rolls of stuff my father saved between 59-64. Lots of BU and toners, rpms and such. One cool find was the 36DDO(strong) But I can't find it now. Have one jar marked Teens. still haven't gone through those. Had a givaway years ago and gave out 60 ld and sd sets. That was neat. still have half dozen in BU.

CarlWohlforth

Whenever I would visit my Grandmother she would bring out a coin to show me. I was very young and she knew I collected coins. I imagined she had a huge hoard of gold, silver and other valuable treasures. When she passed I inherited the hoard. There were about a dozen circulated coins. The most valuable of which I wear on my holey coin hat. It is a holed 1851 gold dollar.

clutsy

My mother gave me my grandfather's hoards. He owned a bank, and a general store in WI... His major collection, gold and proofs, was stolen from the bank when he died, I've got the seconds...i'm still sorting...I don't collect, so I come here to learn...so far the hoard includes roles of IHC, old dimes, nickels, quarters and 50c back to the 1830's, some in MS condition. Trade dollars, morgans...only 2 peace dollars...he had an antique cash register loaded with old coins., most in F to AU. Then in other boxes, commems, civil war tokens, rolls of canadian nickels...including key dates...up to 1946...newfies, novascotia, misc other canadian stuff. Then in with military memorabilia lots of foreign stuff back to the 1600's.
I'm slowly taking pictures, so I can sell them. I have four children...they're only interested in the bill collection.
My neighbor and best friend had a great collection, she went away for the weekend and someone totally cleaned out her house. She started helping me, and I'm giving her US coins to rebuild her collection. I need to start selling the rest before someone decides to "clean" my house.

BigE2

When I was a kid(30+ years ago) my Dad would buy bags of wheats and have 3 or 4 of us kids sort them by date and mintmark.
I'd guess we went thru several dozen bags over the years.

09sVDB

Looked through my neighbors stuff some years ago. Sold all but the $20 Saints to a local dealer for a fair price.

SanctionII

Clutsy, welcome to the forums. Your story is very interesting. Even though the better stuff was stolen before it came into your hands, the stuff you did acquire seems to be wide ranging and varied. You could have a ton of fun looking through these items. You may even hit the jackpot and find some items that have substantial value (i.e. circulated examples of very rare coins or high grade MS examples of more common coins). Toss into the mix the fact that you have US and non US coins to look through dating back hundreds of years and you have a situation custom made to give hours of fun to a collector.

As you go through things, post threads giving updates on what you come across. That way we can all get a vicarious thrill from you.

kranky

A friend asked me to go through and dispose of a box of coins his late father had. There were about 150 Morgan/Peace dollars mostly F-VF, about $50 face in assorted silver (Mercs, Roosies mostly), a dozen Silver ASEs, and oddly enough, about 20 rolls of 1979 SBAs. He had no idea why his father had so many SBAs. I checked the silver dollars for VAMs but not a single interesting one.

Another time a co-worker asked me to go over to his house and go through his father's coins. He didn't have much, about 50 silver dollars, a bunch of dateless Buffalo nickels, a handful of IHCs and some junk silver. What I was really looking forward to was the 25-30 rolls of old Lincolns because they were marked on the wrappers "1909-1919", "1920-1929", etc. But he had taped all the rolls shut with tons of cellophane tape and there was no way to unroll them without destroying the wrappers. He wouldn't let me open them since he didn't have any spare cent wrappers to re-roll them with.

BlindedByEgo

I've accumulated a fair amount of coins through buying small to medium "hoards"... I have probably 100-120 rolls of VF-AU pre 21 Morgans, 1921 Morgans and Peace dollards yet to be cherrypicked... A few rolls of BU's that on a cursory exam have a lot of VAMS... One hoard was a old glass Sparkletts bottle full of silver - still sitting (now in bags) til I have time to go through it. I figure I'll have a busy retirement. Best I ever felt was writing an old fellow an $900 check for smoe odds and ends, he almost cried 'cause he was sure it was only worth $150 or so - that's what his son-in-law told him...

Just scheduled a flight to North Carolina to visit my aunt... My uncle passed away about 10 years ago and she wants smoe help going through the safe deposit box (he was a vest pocket dealer). She also has a substantial US stamp collection going back to the beginning... I guess I'll have to run over to the stamp forum and find out who can be trusted - I was just going to lick 'em and post my Christmas cards with them come December

clutsy

here's one I posted before...until I found this website and saw others that looked like this, I didn't know it was real...it's not toned like the morgans and TD's. I was also tempted to "Clean" it until I read some threads here. I thought it was ugly, but now I see it's beauty as is.

I have found quite a few "key dates" in respectable condition...he only had one of each in his collection at the bank that was stolen...the best strike...the others he put in rolls...my hoard.
He also collected stamps...first day of issue stuff.....stamps don't seem to be too popu;larlots of stamps to go through....generations of military memorabilia...that's why I chose "under construction" It's gonna take me awhile.
I've never bought or sold anything on E-bay, so from what I've read here I'll need to establish a positive reputation before anyone will buy from me, so I'll probably start with the millitary stuff to get some positive feedback.

Be patient...God isn't finished with me yet...

Geoman

I recently got to buy and search a collection of almost $1000 face in silver. The old gentleman that sold it to me, said his Dad had owned many amusement/arcade type games. And his Dad had kept all the silver coins from the amusement games. The collection was made up of Morgan and Peace Dollars, some Mercury Dimes, silver Washington quarters and Roosevelty Dimes, and a lot of Kennedy Half Dollars.

There were actually 43 rolls of Kennedy Half Dollars, which he had taken 3 rolls to show me, stating the other 40 rolls where in his bank's safe deposit box. But all the other silver was there. I offered him a price, he took it, and the day I came to pick it up, the other 40 rolls of Kennedy's were all 40% silver, and not the 90% silver like the 3 rolls he had shown me previously. So I had to reduce my price a lot, but still bought the collection.

I started searching the rolls that night. Every roll was labeled to the dates inside, such as a roll of quarters would have 1964-23, 1963-17, 1962-3, 1961-6 and 1960-1 on the outside of the paper roll, indicating the dates inside. After opening many rolls, I found the writing to be accurate and never off in a date. So I didn't even open the 40 rolls of 40% halves, besides 5 of them to verify the dates of the Kennedy's. However, what got me excited was one of the rolls of Washington's had 1932-3 on it, meaning there were 3 Washington Quarters with the date of 1932 on it. I opened that roll, thinking that I could get lucky and find a "D" or "S" on the reverse of one of those 1932's. But no luck. Everything was common dates throughout the collection. But it was fun searching.

Oh, there were 40 Morgan and Peace Dollars, most were Morgans from 1921. I did see some die cracks on a few, which I need to photograph and check out. However, they are all F-12's to XF-40 in grade; so nothing special.

TwoSides2aCoin

start of 7070 cherrypicked from hoard
part of submission # 3302899

also part of submission # 3302899 and part of 1000th post giveaway

and submission # 3302932, still waiting on results. 1937 DDO Washington


Some of my most recent finds after having purchased a hoard of about 6000 coins. Lots of junk, too

ya just never know what is hiding in a pile of "junk" coins.

SmallSizedGuy

I primarily collect and sell paper money, but also collect coins.

I received a phone call from someone who had several $500s to sell. Nothing really rare, all Chicago FRNs Series 1934s and 1934As. I drove his house to inspect the notes and make an offer. My offer exceeded any of the “brick and mortar” coin dealers in the area.

I must have done something right, the next thing I knew he asked be to make an offer on a Series 1928 $5000 note in CU condition. My jaw must have hit the floor when I saw the note. Anyway, I was upfront with him and stated that this note would be best sold in an auction. (When sold at auction, we both did extremely well on this note!)

Then he asked me about silver dollars…

He told me I needed to help him get his silver dollars out. He had over 700 silver dollars in an old wooden wine case. I could not believe the variety of dates. Apparently the silver dollars were taken out of circulation in the 1940s, so several of the common dates (1921 Morgan, 1922 and 1923 Peace dollars) were not common in the hoard. There were several CC dollars, including two 1893-CC dollars in circulated condition. The best coin in the group was an 1893-S dollar in good. I sold all these dollars for him, and kept the 1893-S as a memento.

Oh, he was offered around $8 each for the silver dollars from the coin dealers. He did much better having me sell them for him.

tmot99

I inherited my dad's "collection". It was little more than pocket change with a bunch of mercury dimes. The whole thing filled up some books, but the highlights of the "collection" were the 2 bags of bicentennial quarters and the set of Lincolns that were bright shiney orange.

ldhair

A good friend brought me several old premium boards he found in his grandmothers attic.
The cent board had a VF 1909 S VDB in the 1909 VDB hole. He was shocked. It was a $300 coin at the time.
He gave me all the boards for almost nothing.

A year or so later I put these sets on Ebay, less the 1909 S VDB and folks went crazy over just the boards.
I owe my friend a bit. I'll soon find a way to say thanks.

AJ2525

I was asked by a lady from church to look through coins her family had.

812 coins.

A roll of 1974-D quarters, a nice details but badly scratched across the Liberty 1839 "booby" head cent, an 1854 Arrows at date half and an 1878 7 tail feathers, second reverse.

Fun to look through though.

SlangNRox

Unfortunately I divided up a relatives hoard into 6 lots for us to each take 1/6 of it. It wouldve been fun to go through all the rolls of silver, but I didnt feel like I had the time to go through $1400-1500 face in silver. And I did not want the other to think that I got the better end of the deal. So it was all divided up 6 ways. I think one of my sisters half dollar rolls was all walking libey halves, and most of the rest were franklins, while I had 2 or 3 rolls of mainly 64 franklins. But I did buy my sisters coins from her. Who knows what was in the other 2/3 of the rolls that I didn't get to see. If it wasn't family I would've made an offer to buy them.

WaterSport

About 7 years ago my Father-in-law called to say that since I was the only coin collector in the family, I could have first crack at looking through the coins left by the passing of his father-in-law who was an LA attorney and passed away at the ripe age of 95. This accumulation, also included coins left by an earlier passing of his cousin who was bit of flea market scrounge.

Well, I was not collecting much at that time, just a yearly proof set, but this search sent me flying full-on back into the hobby. By the time I was done, I had a complete gold type set except for a 10$ Indian, about 1/3 of a BU Morgan set and half a Peace Dollar and Franklin set. I might add, that this hoard had 20 uncirculated (MS 64 according to a couple I sent to (Anacs) $20 St Gaudens which my father-in-law hands out to very special friends on special occasions. While most of this stuff was common date, I think the “rarities where a 1875 – S $20 gold in XF-45, 1903 -0 Morgan MS 65, I might add it also gave me some coins for the type set including an 1875 s/s 20 cent piece and some nice Unc Buff nickels which a couple of 1938 are d/d varieties graded MS 65.

All in all, a nice hoard!

WS

DRUNNER

Our girl's basketball coach here at the school had me come over on a Saturday and review what he had in a bunch of Whitman folders, given to him by his dad. Well-used folders with coins popping out all over the place. Primarily Franklins and Lincolns.

Lincolns were nice F-XF through book 1 and 2 . . . and I looked first at the S-VDB hole. Good looking 1909-S, but no VDB. Many dates were in the wrong holes, some just laying in the folder. Started to go through the loose ones in the center of the folder and yup . . .another 1909-S. Flipped it over and bingo . . . even though it wasn't mine it was sort of like a circulation find. Ended up sending uit to ANACS for him . . . XF-40. Complete set rattling around there.

Franklins were circ, except for one folder (!!). The guy had punched a BU 1949-S into almost every hole. He had 4-5 circ sets, then this blue Whitman with virtually a full roll of 1949-S BU just sitting in the holes all askew. They are still there to this day . . . and the coach just lost in the semis. Boys team plays today in the semis.

Local shop (since out of business) had a guy come in and sell 5-6 rolls of wheats taped shut. Shop opens one or two, sees common wheaties, pays the guy 1.5 cents / coin for the rolls. They sat around (seems like a common story for most coin shops) for weeks on a desk . . then some kid busts them open. Complete set through the mid-50s with a lot of duplicates in the commons, but at least one of all keys (2 1914-Ds though). Circ stuff . . . generally low grade, but taped up and yellowed since apparently the 50s. Shop said they tried to find the guy (???) but to no avail (yeah, right).

I've also helped out (ANA Regional Coordinator) with a few other "hoards" from teachers and relatives . . . all really exciting early Memorials and clad "old" stuff from 1965-70 !!!!! Yuk. Hard to tell those they had spendable accumulations.

Drunner

USCGCraig

My step dad showed me what his father gave him. The first was a nice comlplete circulated set of Franklin halves, a bout 50$ face of more Franklin halves and Mercury dimes. Nothing special. His parents were also given 50 Morgan silver dollars for their 50th wedding anniversary which was in 1986. Nothing special but I haven't looked for VAMs yet. Most are in XF-AU range with mostly common dates. Next was a nice AU 1853 $1 gold piece. Common but pretty neat.

Next was the paper money arranged with big stuff on the bottom and small on top. First was small ize silver certificates from 57 and the late 35 series. Nothing special and no stars. A couple of $2 and $5 Legal Tenders from 53 were next. Then there was a stack of about 20 Confederate notes. When I looked at them back in 1999, I knew they would fetch around $5-$25 each. I didn't look at the dates as I didn't know at the time that that there are some really rare Rebel notes out there. I'll get a chance to look at them again this summer. Next came an 1896 $1 Educational in fine but with some pinholes. I was pretty excited to see that. Next came the $2 Educational in VF and the last note was the $5 Educational in VF but with a couple of small pinholes and a 5 digit serial number. I couldn't contain myself. Evidently, his dad worked as a banker in the early 30's and that is how he got the gold dollar and the 3 large silver certificates.

I've had occasion to look over neighbor's accumulations. One was a whole bunch of modern proof and uncirc commems with most of the value coming in the gold coins. Another accumulation was found when my neighbor demo'd a home he owned. Evidently, the owner was of German decent and cashed all his checks in for silver coins during World War II. He passed away in 1944. The Walking Liberty halves in the 40's were all very nice MS and AU coins. None of the rest of the silver was anything special. Just about $1,000 face though.

MrHalfDime

A couple of years ago I made a presentation to a local historical society, as I often do, talking in general about United States coins, their history, art, designs, and some of the individuals involved in their production. I may have mentioned my particular interest in the half dimes, as one gentleman approached me after the program and stated that he, also, had some half dimes. It turns out, he bought a small 'hoard' of them in 1960 from a local family, and he had a considerable amount of specific history on them. He invited me to inspect the group of coins, which turned out to comprise fully 101 pieces, all United States half dimes. From his own specific knowledge of the family, which he had known for many years, accompanied with some documentation in the form of letters, he was able to trace this group of half dimes at least back to 1880, when they were specifically mentioned in a family letter, refering to "Grampa's old group of five cent silver pieces". It appears that this group was actually a Civil War hoard, which was quite common during the War of the Rebellion. Citizens were not sure just what the outcome might be, but they were certain that the intrinsic value of United States coins equalled their face value, so no matter what happened to the Union, silver coins were a safe investment. Subsistance farmers in northern New England typically were not wealthy people, so they did not have large quantities of coins, but many were able to put away quantities of small denomination coins such as the half dimes, as was the case with this family.

It was intriguing to see such a quantity of strictly original coins, with nothing more than honest circulation wear. The owner, once informed of their true worth, elected to sell the collection. The latest date in the group was 1857; the earliest was 1831. I purchased the group, and sold most of the coins, but I kept the following coins:

1831 V6 AU-58
1836 V4 F-12
1838 AU-58
1838 V6 EF-40
1845 F-15
1847 V4 AU-50
1851 V4 EF-45
1853 WA EF-40
1853-O WA V2 VF-35
1854 EF-40

All of these are very attractive coins, but made all the more intriguing by their history.

shirohniichan

My pastor asked me to go through his parents'/grandparents' accumulation of silver dollars from their book store. He said they pulled most of them from their store's cash register in the 1950's and 1960's. An analysis of the dates suggested this was so. Besides the common 1921 Morgans and common-date Peace dollars, there were a number of AU and BU New Orleans coins (no 1903-O or 1904-O, though, as both were rare before the 1960's Treasury releases). I bought two Danscos to house best of the date/mintmark coins in the collection, put nice duplicates in 2x2's, and the rest went into plastic tubes. Originally they were "rolled" in plastic wrap or tissue. In all there were over 400 coins.

[Edited to say there were over 400 coins, not 600 coins.]

rhedden

A friend of mine brought a small candy tin full of loose coins to me. In it were 1857 and 1858 gold $2.50 pieces in original AU-58, an 1874-P Arrows Quarter in Unc, and many mid-grade type coins. I nearly dropped dead when he got the quarter out. It was just rattling around in there loose with dozens of other coins, as were the quarter eagles. I stapled up the better coins in 2x2's and gave him a free appraisal on the lot.

Another friend of mine had a small box of coins that had nothing more valuable in it than a 1921-D Morgan in XF. With only one coin left in the box to appraise, he was sorely disappointed. The very last coin was a heavily tarnished Walking Half, which he tossed across the table, frustrated, exclaiming "what's this piece of junk worth?" It'a a good thing I caught his AU/Unc. 1918-D Walker before it rolled off the table.