What is the most unusual coin story you were personally involved in?

SanctionII

For me the most unusual sprang from a legal dispute I handled. I posted about it a few years back.

In summary, a client of mine bought a property from a middle aged guy who looked like he drank too much. The guy took the money but refused to move on the close of escrow. My client hired me to evict the guy, which I did. However the guy failed to remove his personal property and my client had to place it in storage. Included in the personal property was a rather extensive collection of coins that the guy's deceased father had acquired from around the world. When my client discovered the coin collection, we took the collection and kept it separate from the other items in storage. I was able to look at the collection in detail. The guy ended up paying the moving and storage expenses to reclaim his personal property including the coin collection. However, during the time I had to look through the collection I found it had coins ranging from around 1830 to the 1980's, both world and US coins, both circulated and MS. Most the the older coins were circulated. There were over 2,300 silver US quarters alone.

Very interesting.

Cladiator

This one.

lordmarcovan

The one Cladiator posted. He was the middleman and I was the chump in that particular deal.

I don't mind, though, because we got a good story out of it. Besides, I received a signed Overton book as a consolation gift.

UtahCoin

What's that coin worth today?

holeinone1972

I think you are gonna be sick.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>What's that coin worth today? >>

Heaven knows. I suppose it all depends on when it sells again.

tradedollarnut

I had a signed deal to buy an 1894-S dime. The deal fell through when the agent said the owner 'couldn't find it'.

fivecents

Wow! This is a great thread!! And only six posts so far.

SanctionII

fivecents:

I thought my question to strat this thread had potential to generate some interesting responses and stories.

So far, so good. Only time will tell if this thread will have any legs.

kaz

great stories, keep 'em coming cause I don't have one!

ricko

I had been bidding on '95W ASE's, but always went too high (this was years ago during the fever). Out of nowhere, I received an email offering a PCGS slabbed '95 for a very nice (read that low) price. I called him directly, asking appropriate questions. His reply was "I am not a collector, I picked it up as an investment. I need to cover my stock shorts and have to convert to cash." I said OK.. could I return it if I find it unacceptable? He said.."... better than that.. I will ship it to you, if you like it, send me a check, if not, return it." My comment was "Wow, you are very trusting.."... His reply, "Not really, I am a lawyer...and expect it would be a lot more trouble for you if things do not go right."
I laughed and gave him my address. Quick summary... excellent coin, checked the PCGS number etc.. all on the up and up. Kept the coin, sent him the check, case closed. Cheers, RickO

lordmarcovan

This one was kind of funny.

I've told it a million times but it seems to be popular. Carl Wohlforth printed it on his website (as you see), and a coin club in Florida (coincidentally in the town where I was born) actually asked him for permission to reprint it in their newsletter.

And unlike many of my rambling tales, it's quite short.

ricko

Good one LordM.... how cool.. the scammer got the shaft on that one... Cheers, RickO

busco69

When I was a young boy my Dad bought a pickup load of wheat pennies.There was about 50 large bank bags full ,this was in the early seventies.We found several 1909 s vdb 1914 d 1909 s 1931 s Dad gave us boys $1.00 for each key date we found. Over 200 were found and it took over a year for my dad I and my six brothers to search them.My oldest brother still has a choice bu 1909 s from this batch.Most of these coins were BU it was an amazing group of wheats now that I look back at it.

coindeuce

I was consulted by a third party about authenticity of an 1804 dollar. The coin had passed through several generations of a family that included a coin dealer who had established his business in the 1880's, passed away in the 1950's. The date appeared to have been altered, but it was later known to have been accepted as collateral for a six figure loan. The lenders tried to get it authenticated several times without success.

CertifiedGoldCoins

When I was in high school, I used to swap rolls at a bank, and made friend with the tellers, by giving them my old Red Book, Numismatic Scrapbook magazines, etc., which helped them find coins they could sell. One day, around 1961, a teller signalled me to come to his window, where an elderly couple stood. They had been about to make a deposit, and the teller didn't recognize the bills they had. In her hand, the wife held a stack of large bills, at least an inch thick.

Although I did not collect paper money then, I recognized the bills, and told the couple that what they had was not only real money, but very valuable. Instantly, they turned around, and left the bank. What they had were Silver Certificates, series of 1896, like this one (yes, there were $2's and $5's in the stack):

TwoSides2aCoin

A lady had a bunch of gold coins she wanted to get rid of. I was contacted by a very reliable source and had hoped to broker a deal to get this lady the maximum profits from what her father left her.
The coins and lady completely disappeared. I was given a message that : " The coins are gone".
I took this message to mean : "Forget about this Joe, the story is over".


I love a good mystery

CaptHenway

The stolen 1804 dollar that walked into ANACS one day.
TD

ProofArtworkonCircs

Years ago, I was interrupted by a phone call at work. The "gentleman" on the other end had a lot of questions on my collection. He was particularily interested in my specialty of special proof artwork. He had gotten my name from a prominent coin columnist. He wanted me to send copies of my information. It was a box number in Leavenworth Kansas. Yes, it was the Federal pen and he was an inmate. I complained to the coin writer who did not know that and who then complained to the inmate. The inmates first reaction - "It was that guy, Hicks, who fingered me, wasn't it ?" Comforting, eh what? Oh well, I sent him the information he wanted and his mother, his treasurer, reinbursed me postage from Florida. The prison authorites were rather proud of him, since he was working on his master's degree.

Halfsense

In April 2003, while planning publicity for that summer's ANA World's Fair of Money convention in Baltimore where the four known surviving 1913 Liberty Head nickels would be displayed, I had this crazy idea for Bowers and Merena (then owned by Collectors Universe) to offer a minimum $1 million reward for the long-missing fifth specimen.

Surprise! It showed up! (It's the George O. Walton specimen, and after he was killed in a 1962 car crash his heirs were erroneously told it was a fake. The family kept the coin in a Virginia closet for 41 years until a niece and nephew brought it to the 2003 ANA convention where it was authenticated during a midnight meeting by an astounded and delighted team from PCGS.)

-donn-

kranky

<< <i>The stolen 1804 dollar that walked into ANACS one day. >>


TD, you have a gift for understatement.



<< <i>In April 2003, while planning publicity for that summer's ANA World's Fair of Money convention in Baltimore where the four known surviving 1913 Liberty Head nickels would be displayed, I had this crazy idea for Bowers and Merena (then owned by Collectors Universe) to offer a minimum $1 million reward for the long-missing fifth specimen.

Surprise! It showed up! (It's the George O. Walton specimen, and after he was killed in a 1962 car crash his heirs were erroneously told it was a fake. The family kept the coin in a Virginia closet for 41 years until a niece and nephew brought it to the 2003 ANA convention where it was authenticated during a midnight meeting by an astounded and delighted team from PCGS.)

-donn- >>



Though you would not remember, Halfsense, I had the opportunity to chat with you a bit next to the 1913 nickel display the morning that the show opened and I would say you were positively giddy about it! I guess had you not had your "crazy idea" for the $1 million bounty, the coin would still be in that closet.

Shamika

BillyKingsley

I have not had anything particularly interesting happen yet. I've only been doing this for a few months, so I should have lots of time in the future for interesting stuff!

garsmith

Well this one time at coin camp.........................................

GritsMan

Great thread! Keep 'em coming.

Halfsense

Though you would not remember, Halfsense, I had the opportunity to chat with you a bit next to the 1913 nickel display the morning that the show opened and I would say you were positively giddy about it! I guess had you not had your "crazy idea" for the $1 million bounty, the coin would still be in that closet.

Kranky, I honestly don't recall our meeting. I plead diminished capacity. After the midnight authentication meeting, I began sending out notices to the news media from the phone and fax machine in my hotel room. I had only about two hours of sleep before going to a TV station for an early morning news program interview segment.

My main recollection from that first day of the 2003 ANA convention is standing a bit away from the 1913 Liberty Head nickels display with Cheryl Myers (Walton's niece), her husband, Gary, and Ryan Givens (Walton's nephew) watching a lenghty line of people waiting to view the coins. It was the first time in about 60 years or so that all five 1913 Liberty Head nickels were together.

TwoSides2aCoin

<< <i>Well this one time at coin camp......................................... >>

tradedollarnut

The other day I was on a golf outing with Dwight Manley and we were discussing the nickels. It's interesting that the two of us are among just a handful of people who have ever owned more than one of the specimens.

lasvegasteddy

kinda boring...but when the manager was called over as they thought i was using counterfeit coins at walmart when i tried to pay with sackies

SLQ

I got a civil war token in change back in the 1970's.

seanq

At the WESPNEX show several years ago, an error coin dealer I've known forever told me about an amazing coin that had been making its way around the floor. It was a cent still in a Mint set which was either multiply struck or was from a wild doubled die. He pointed out the dealer who owned it and asked me to give my opinion of it. As I examined it, I noticed a cloudy spot on the plastic so I slid the coin in the set slightly with my finger. When I did, the doubled image didn't move with the coin. The coin had been squeezed so hard (probably in the mail) that the obverse image had been embossed into the plastic. I had to break the bad news to the owner and my sheepish friend.


Sean Reynolds

Pistareen

The recovery of the 1866 No Motto dollar stolen from the duPonts was pretty unusual.

ProofArtworkonCircs

About 1954 I worked part time in a rather strange A&P store. It was a throwback to the old days and was essentially a one man operation.
I came to work one day and the top 10 in the cash register was on the Factory Point National Bank of Manchester Center, Vermont. Ungrateful me started to berate the manager. "Why didn't you save that for me? You know I save these." His reply ; "I just did."
The origin of the note was a coin collector who had just bought a complete collection but did not collect paper money.

One day there there was religeous convention in town. One of the missionaries came into the store. Nearly ignoring me, he asks for the manager. I tell him the back room. He strides briskly into the back room and almost instantly briskly out again and out of the store. I ask the manager what happened. His reply: "He asked me if I was prepared for the next world. I told Hell!, No! I haven't got this one straigtened out yet."

NHSBaseball

The most unusual thing that happened to me was the discovery of a couple of proof patterns at my Father-in-Law's house. He had helped clear out his Uncle's house who had just died, and came across a few coins that he had bought at some point in the late 1980's or early 1990's. He said his Uncle had once told him he had a couple of coins worth "thousands of dollars", and wanted me to look at them.

I was totally prepared to have to break the news to my Father-in-Law that his Uncle had been ripped off or taken advantage of, when to my amazement he pulled out these 2 patterns in old PCGS Green Label holders! They are really super looking coins and it was a thrill to have them "uncovered" by someone who had no idea what he had!

I was on my way to take my daughter to meet her friends at "Lazer Tag", so only got to snap a couple of horrible shots of the coins- and the next day they were returned to the safety deposit box.

It really made me wonder how many people out there are sitting on really nice coins with no idea of what they have...

HIGHLOWLEAVES

A coin collector's once in a lifetime experience........ The last Saturday in January, 2005.... A raw Unc set of High/Low WI variety quarters were on Ebay. No big deal, right? No? The seller is 90 miles from where I live in South Texas !! Being retired, owning a gas saving Honda and with a few bucks in the bank, I headed out the next monday buying all the rolls of WI quarters that I could find. My search ended a few weeks later and probably 1,000 miles added to the odometer !! This was all done on a hunch because the Ebay seller in Kerrville, Tx may have just moved to that area of South Texas from Tuscon shortly before offering his trio set of quarters. The Lord did bless me and my family. Not because we found a few examples in BU rolls, but that the search was a family experience !! Looking back, I should have not bought additional WI quarters off Ebay and AZ/TX dealers because I am a collector who has held their scarce quarters rather than cashing in on them. Only time will prove me right or wrong. But the entire experience was life changing. Thank you Bob Ford for announcing your find in Tucson back in December, 2004.

airplanenut

During the gold recall in 1933, my great grandfather stashed away a $5 Liberty and $2 1/2 Indian. As the only collector in the family, I got the pieces when they were discovered in my great aunt's safe deposit box after she passed away. Simply for the personal story and the fact that no one knows how my grandfather could have afforded to "give up" $7.50, the coins were awesome, and nice original AU's to boot. Then the kicker... it turns out the 1911 $2.50 isn't a 1911, but a 1911-D Weak D. Yes, my grandfather happened to stash away the key date for the series.

Veep

My Dad and brothers were all metal detector enthusiasts. One day, my older brother found an 1877 Indian cent. Flash forward 20 years and the same brother found an XF 1909-S Indian cent in the yard of his apartment house. I helped him "conserve" it and trade it for a $10 Indian.

anablep

Jeremy, that D is so weak, I don't know if I can see it at all.

Is it really that faint?

Nice job by your great grandfather... nice story.

Frankcoins

About 1998 at my store a very thin young woman in her 20s showed up driving a white van and had perhaps $1000 worth of proof and mint sets,
some common silver dollars, a few jewelry items and watches, maybe a couple of thousand dollars total. Claimed she and
her boyfriend needed money to buy "medicine" and "grandma" had given them her coin collection to sell.

Pretty obvious that they were drug addicts and the stuff was probably stolen, so we passed. I gave her $5 and a buy-one-meal-get-one-free
meal coupon for Burger King that I had in my wallet. She started crying and said they had not eaten in days, and left.

Couple of days later on TV they had live coverage from a helicopter of the same van being chased by police toward Dallas on Interstate 30.

The reporter said "They are really creating a traffic jam on I-30...our reporter on the ground says they seem to be throwing COINS and JEWELRY OUT THE WINDOWS!!!"

After the cops shot out the tires, the boyfriend got out of the van waving a gun yelling KILL ME! KILL ME! to the cops ---which they promptly did.

Then while they were trying to get the girl to come out of van, she pulled out a gun and blew her brains out...

Really, really sad.

lordmarcovan

A recent post about a "Martha Washington" trial piece just jogged my memory about another tale I was involved in, though only in the most peripheral fashion. My recollections of it are a little hazy, but it was pretty interesting and exciting at the time.

A customer of mine, when I first set up the antique mall booth (early 2003-ish), talked to me about cheap Darkside coins I was selling in my 3/$1 bin, and where I got them. I told him I bought them in bulk in big bags, and that cherrypicking them was time consuming but fun, and sometimes quite profitable.

Months later, he came back to me and said that he had followed my advice on getting Krause catalogs and buying bulk world coins and cherrypicking them. And he'd bought one bulk lot (not from me) which proved very interesting. It threw him off at first, because he couldn't find mention of it anywhere, even though it was obviously an American coin. It was a "Martha Washington" pattern piece, the "dime", I think.

Having just heard of these pieces for the first time, I just mumbled, "oh, suuure, RIGHT" to myself, giving the story about as much credence as the usual ludicrous "Once my daddy found a 1913 Liberty nickel" stories one hears from the general public. I completely thought this fella was telling me a tall tale, until he came back beaming about the sale of the piece, and showed me a clipping from Coin World or somewhere, with his name and the story in it.

My jaw about hit the floor.

I wish I could remember more of the details. The guy was a schoolteacher, if I recall correctly, maybe from Jacksonville, FL, and had been laid off or was in danger of being laid off or cut back somehow, so the discovery could not have come at a better time for him. He was happy with me for the pointers I'd given him about Darkside bulk cherrypicking.

rhedden

A friend of mine who owned a shop got a large collection for appraisal, which he eventually bought. While looking through it, he opened a partial roll of wheat cents, and 40 1955 doubled die cents slid out. Many were lightly cleaned, but that's still quite a roll...

WaterSport

My story begins when a coworker lost his wife and got into coin collecting BIG time. As for me, I was still completing my Whitman folder of Lincoln cents and had a 1910-s on layaway around the corner at a local coin shop until pay day.

Anyway, Bob got assigned to my location and we discovered we each collected coins, only on a bit different scale. He was flying to big shows, and buying choice unc (that’s what we use to call MS in those days) type coins. Well, Bob met a new lady and proposed to her but under the condition that he sells his coins and buys her a house as she did not want to live in his small apartment.

I am not sure why Bob did not start selling to the worldly dealers he bought from, but since I knew where 6-7 coin shops in the DC area were located, and I had a car, I agreed to take Bob to each shop so he could sell his coins. That is when I finally got to see his coins. To this day, it remains the most awesome set of type coinage in proof and MS I have ever seen in my life. While he kept his private life just that I was made aware that a few buys (in 1977 dollars for comparison) were in the 6-8,000 range. Needless to say, he bought a house got married and retired. Before he left he walked in one day with a cardboard box saying this was some left over stuff and he wanted to give it to me as a thank you for helping him out. No, there was not one single coin, but a big selection of Capital Plastic Holders and a complete date set of Red Books all of which I still have to this day.

WS

OaklandBill

About 1982 I was wandering around the Cathedral Hill (old Jack Tar Hotel before it burned) Hotel in San Francisco,CA during a NCNA (NorCal Numis. Assoc.) show with my Capital plastic holder set (12 coins) of type US gold ($1's thru $20;Indian and Liberty heads) cupped in my hand at waist level just comparing mine to what was for sale and looking for upgrades. From about 40 feet away a guy behind a table caught my eye and told me to come over. I strolled over to Fred Sweeney's table and Bruce Amspacher told me that my $2-1/2 Liberty head was a fake. When I got home I mailed it back to C/to/C and they gave me some flak about it being over a year since i bought it and it was out of flip but they sent the money.
Even funnier is the fact that I had become an ANA member earlier that month and the first magazine they sent me had the 1932 $10 Indian with the break below the date as an example of a fake in the certification column. That was what I had in my holder purchased at the same time/place as the above coin. Like I said;lotsa flak but got money back on both. Thanks Bruce.
Another Bruce Amspacher story: Sometime later I had seen Fred Sweeney's ad in Coin World for a CalGold BG1207 $1 Indian Head which I desired. It was priced at $2,100. I had talked to John Rowe (Jay Roe California Gold) by phone about the coin and he said it was nice and that Fred would probably take $1,600. Bingo! At the next NCNA show (1983?) soon after I offered Bruce $1600 and had it.
Thanks again Bruce. Great eye and wonderful doing business with you. RIP.

coolest

Around 1970 I had a mild interest in coin collecting and a friend had a jar/can of "interesting" coins. A couple of steel pennies a badly worn and corroded liberty nickel, etc etc.. Any way one of the coins was a beat-up 1943 cent that we thought could not be a real steel penny since it was not attracted to a magnet and it had a strange color, brown like copper. I didn't realize what we may have been looking at until many years later.

NHSBaseball

<< <i>About 1982 I was wandering around the Cathedral Hill (old Jack Tar Hotel before it burned) Hotel in San Francisco,CA during a NCNA (NorCal Numis. Assoc.) show with my Capital plastic holder set (12 coins) of type US gold ($1's thru $20;Indian and Liberty heads) cupped in my hand at waist level just comparing mine to what was for sale and looking for upgrades. From about 40 feet away a guy behind a table caught my eye and told me to come over. I strolled over to Fred Sweeney's table and Bruce Amspacher told me that my $2-1/2 Liberty head was a fake. When I got home I mailed it back to C/to/C and they gave me some flak about it being over a year since i bought it and it was out of flip but they sent the money.
Even funnier is the fact that I had become an ANA member earlier that month and the first magazine they sent me had the 1932 $10 Indian with the break below the date as an example of a fake in the certification column. That was what I had in my holder purchased at the same time/place as the above coin. Like I said;lotsa flak but got money back on both. Thanks Bruce.
Another Bruce Amspacher story: Sometime later I had seen Fred Sweeney's ad in Coin World for a CalGold BG1207 $1 Indian Head which I desired. It was priced at $2,100. I had talked to John Rowe (Jay Roe California Gold) by phone about the coin and he said it was nice and that Fred would probably take $1,600. Bingo! At the next NCNA show (1983?) soon after I offered Bruce $1600 and had it.
Thanks again Bruce. Great eye and wonderful doing business with you. RIP. >>



Great story! 13 posts since 2001 and you're listed as a "new member". Too funny.

SanctionII

Trolling through old thread and saw this one.

It is pretty good, with some great stories.

So why not send it to the top?

Maybe some new, great stories will be told

yellowkid

I just posted this but what the heck. I was working in sales, would hit an area and cold call for a few days. I was in a very nice older home and the woman asked me if I knew anyhting about coins, at the time I really didn't and told her so. Then she produced a full shoe box of all kinds of coins, many I had no idea what they were and she asked me if Iwanted to buy them. I had $70 dollars in my checking account(That was all my money in the world) so I told her I liked them but could only offer her $70(or maybe $65 to keep the account open). She said that was fine and I bought the coins and I thought" I hope I wasn't an idiot buying these" . I drove home the next day and went to the old "we buy gold' store in town. I went in to get a coin book but brought the box in. The guy poked through it a bit and said he would give me a good price but I told him I wanted to check them, he may have offered me something. Then he took out three coins and said he would give me $100 for them(over 35 years ago). I accepted and left. The box turned out to be a collection, it had three 1877 IH's which is the best pieces I remember. I had sold him Spanish reales. I made 3 or 4 thousand at least from that box and it was what got me interested in coins. I felt that maybe I should give the woman some more money so I told my wife that next time up that way I would. Well I was called to what turned out to be a new career a few days later and never did go back! I suppose I could have found out somehow from the check I gave her who she was but... that was then.

scoobydeux

Here's a copy of a post that I put up about a year ago...

A really unusual event occurred to me the other day that I thought the members of the message board might find interesting. I was browsing the ANR archives, specifically the NY Connoisseur's sale of February 2006, as my 1824/2/0 came from that auction (I purchased it at a later time) to see if there were any other interesting pieces offered at that time. (Incidentally, that sale had an 1811 PCGS MS 65 owned by Reed Hawn that now resides in Dale Freind's collection that is really something to behold).

As I was browsing through, something odd caught my eye--an 1830 small O PCGS 64 that went for $16,100. "Boy" I thought, "that's quite a bit for an 1830 64," so I clicked on the picture. Once enlarged, I noticed that it looked a bit familiar, and then, in a split second an epiphany struck--THATS MY 1830!! I couldn't believe it a first, but sure enough it was the same coin that I bought from a dealer in June of 2007 (for full retail at the time, about 1/4 of the ANR sale price) as an NGC 64, and had it subsequently crossed back to PCGS (64). Furthermore, the auction description reveled that this is a more interesting coin that I was led to believe when I purchased it.

I've copied photos of the coin along with the description from the ANR auction below. I couldn't find any info on the O-110a, as it's not listed as a separate variety in the latest Overton. Likewise on the New Netherlands coin company, or Wayne G. Slife. If anyone has any knowledge regarding these topics, I'd love to hear about them.

P.S.--unfortunately, no, the lot ticket from the 1972 Merkin auction of my 1830 was not included when I bought it. Rats!!





1830 "O-110a". Rarity-7(?). Small O. MS-64 (PCGS).
An exceptionally beautiful specimen struck from the elusive late state of these dies. Magnificent radiant cartwheel lustre over pristine gold-toned surfaces, framed by traces of rose, violet, and blue just inside the rims. Boldly struck and especially choice for the grade, with gem-quality eye appeal and gem-quality technical quality. A very shallow scrape on Liberty's cheek is the only mark we note and no hairlines are seen. Each and every detail in the obverse stars, Liberty's hair, and the eagle is nicely defined. Catalogued by Walter Breen in 1972 as "Frosty golden toned gem Unc., needly sharp strike except on part of rev. dentils. Ex. New Netherlands. Very rare edge."

Careful study of this piece repays the effort expended, as an intricate array of die rust was partially effaced above the eagle's head on the reverse is a most unusual fashion. A short break connects F and AM of OF AMERICA, and some faint specks of die rust are also visible above Liberty's cap. A thin crack from below star 4 to the center of star 7 marks this as the die state now called "O-110a," first widely promulgated by Steven Herrman after a specimen with this crack appeared in a 1994 Sheridan Downey sale. The most recent edition of Herrman's bust half survey notes that this die state is "probably R7" though it now appears somewhat more common—just how common is not known though it still accounts for just a small fraction of specimens known from these dies. Herrman noted only 3 different coins (sold in four offerings), none finer than AU-50. Whether a collector finds this piece desirable for its beautiful color, its exceptional preservation, or its scarce die state, we suspect that it will be a point of great pride once acquired.
Walter Breen, at the time he described this coin in 1972, was studying the different edge dies used on Bust halves and identified this as the "third edge of 1830, same as second of 1831—bars on plaques slant up to r." Of course then, as now, no one much cared about edges, and now with so many coins in certified holders his research couldn't really continue even if someone wanted to. Of course, if they do, the edge of this coin may turn out to be important!
From the New York Connoisseur's Collection. Previously from New Netherlands Coin Company to Wayne G. Slife; Lester Merkin's sale of February 1972, Lot 185. The 1972 lot ticket accompanies this lot.