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Got to look through someone's father's collection
AJ2525
Posts: 477
Hello,
A widow I know found out I like coins and asked me to look through what her father left her. Her father was an ex Marine who flew for the CIA in the early sixties and picked up stuff from all over. Apparently he left her lots of other "neat" things but all I got to look through was some of the coins. I'll even have to go back to look at more of them.
What she showed me so far...
An 1857 cent that looked like the three holes in it were patched with copper.
About 100 Indian head cents from 1888 to 1907. Really grimy coins, maybe they were dug up?
About 200 Lincoln wheat cents. A really nice 1943-S, 1957 and 1958. She had a 1959-D that something had been done to it to make it look proof-like.
Looking through the Lincoln cents I got her excited when I found what at first I thought was a 1914-D in at least XF.
Then I noticed the little envelope it came in said (altered). Sure enough, I looked at it and could see where a 44-D was ground down to look like a 14-D.
A few Liberty nickels, the 1912 might go XF, the others very worn.
About a dozen dateless Buffaloes.
A 1916-S Buffalo in good.
A few silver dimes.
A couple rolls of circulated silver quarters. Two Standing Liberties (1929 and ?), a few really worn 1936-1939 Washington quarters
One roll of mixed lightly circulated quarters from 1965 to 1974. I told her to spend those.
One Walking Liberty Half (1936) and ten Franklins. Probably two rolls of 1964 Kennedies.
A 1971 Eisenhower with presentation case from the Republican party that looked like it played the role of pocket piece. Given what she told me about him, I wondered where that dollar has been.
A two 1921 Morgans and five 1922 Peace dollars.
Two tins filled with foreign coins. A couple of what looked like French Verdun medals, I thought they were neat. Some silver and lots of bronze and copper coins. A few went as far back as the 1850's. A couple of older Canadian coins. One nice 1947 Canadian nickel I liked.
One 8 reals piece with a stamp right in the middle of the obverse.
I needed to go and she brought out the gold coins. Several 1881 eagles and one pretty nice 1908 double eagle. Where is the mint mark on those? I'm not sure about the foreign gold coins. One looked to be a British soverign (?Spelling).
She insisted I take two of what I thought were fractional California gold replicas. I'm pretty sure they are souvenirs made recently.
I'm ready for bed tonight but want to look up an 1857 piece that resembles a cent but has "Millions for defense but not one cent in tribute" on the reverse.
Oh, she even had Brasso and metal polish ready for me to clean the coins when I got there. Thankfully she didn't clean any and was very surprised you don't clean coins.
Overall it was fun to look through. She has about twenty rolls of other stuff for a future visit.
A widow I know found out I like coins and asked me to look through what her father left her. Her father was an ex Marine who flew for the CIA in the early sixties and picked up stuff from all over. Apparently he left her lots of other "neat" things but all I got to look through was some of the coins. I'll even have to go back to look at more of them.
What she showed me so far...
An 1857 cent that looked like the three holes in it were patched with copper.
About 100 Indian head cents from 1888 to 1907. Really grimy coins, maybe they were dug up?
About 200 Lincoln wheat cents. A really nice 1943-S, 1957 and 1958. She had a 1959-D that something had been done to it to make it look proof-like.
Looking through the Lincoln cents I got her excited when I found what at first I thought was a 1914-D in at least XF.
Then I noticed the little envelope it came in said (altered). Sure enough, I looked at it and could see where a 44-D was ground down to look like a 14-D.
A few Liberty nickels, the 1912 might go XF, the others very worn.
About a dozen dateless Buffaloes.
A 1916-S Buffalo in good.
A few silver dimes.
A couple rolls of circulated silver quarters. Two Standing Liberties (1929 and ?), a few really worn 1936-1939 Washington quarters
One roll of mixed lightly circulated quarters from 1965 to 1974. I told her to spend those.
One Walking Liberty Half (1936) and ten Franklins. Probably two rolls of 1964 Kennedies.
A 1971 Eisenhower with presentation case from the Republican party that looked like it played the role of pocket piece. Given what she told me about him, I wondered where that dollar has been.
A two 1921 Morgans and five 1922 Peace dollars.
Two tins filled with foreign coins. A couple of what looked like French Verdun medals, I thought they were neat. Some silver and lots of bronze and copper coins. A few went as far back as the 1850's. A couple of older Canadian coins. One nice 1947 Canadian nickel I liked.
One 8 reals piece with a stamp right in the middle of the obverse.
I needed to go and she brought out the gold coins. Several 1881 eagles and one pretty nice 1908 double eagle. Where is the mint mark on those? I'm not sure about the foreign gold coins. One looked to be a British soverign (?Spelling).
She insisted I take two of what I thought were fractional California gold replicas. I'm pretty sure they are souvenirs made recently.
I'm ready for bed tonight but want to look up an 1857 piece that resembles a cent but has "Millions for defense but not one cent in tribute" on the reverse.
Oh, she even had Brasso and metal polish ready for me to clean the coins when I got there. Thankfully she didn't clean any and was very surprised you don't clean coins.
Overall it was fun to look through. She has about twenty rolls of other stuff for a future visit.
Some call it an accumulation not a collection
0
Comments
If nothing else you saved quite a few cool old coins from being scrubbed with Brasso.
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