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Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
SilverEagles92
Posts: 6,787 ✭
I received a phone call at the beginning of last week, and it was my grandfather. He began to tell me that he had offered my services to his brother-in-law, Gary, pertaining to an appraisal and consignment of a coin collection.
Fast forward to today, and I met Gary at his brother’s house, and he brought his entire coin collection.
In the collection is probably upwards of 200 coins, all raw, ranging from a draped bust half cent to a 1988 Korean Olympics commemorative.
I walked into the kitchen, and spread out on the table are six boxes, four of which I recognized immediately. They were the no-longer-produced PCGS slab storage boxes, the green ones. My heart skipped a beat as I thought perhaps all of his coins were already certified, but I later found out that that was not the case.
I opened up the first box, which contained halves. The first coin I pulled out was a seated half, nothing too special, worth maybe $40 or so.
The next few PCGS boxes proved to be just as the first, some decent coins, but none worth more than $50 or so.
There was a box he had been guarding the entire time – his box of silver dollars. There was probably a dozen or so silver dollars in that box, including a gorgeous 1992 silver eagle with a nice electric blue and pink toning. This box was probably worth $300.
The final box was a small plastic cream-colored box, and it was the box that surprised me the most. The first coin I pulled out was a VF 1857 Flying Eagle cent, followed by two of its brothers. I also found an 1803 Draped Bust Half Cent, several large cents, and a handful of 2c pieces.
The last coin in the box, believe it or not, was a 1909 S VDB Lincoln Cent. My heart skipped several beats at that moment, furiously flipping through my pricing guides and various other literature to try and a) determine authenticity, and b) give a rough estimate of value. I was not able to determine authenticity with 100% certainty, so it’s heading off to NGC this week for an Express service, so they can tell me if it’s authentic
After I fumbled through the pages, my hands shaking all the while, I started quoting numbers. You could see Gary’s eyes getting bigger and bigger as I rattled off numbers. He couldn’t believe that something as mundane as a Lincoln cent could be worth anywhere near as much as it is. If the coin is genuine, I suspect it will come back around EF40, and it’s not been cleaned or recolored, so it should slab. The only thing Im worried about is the possibility of an added mintmark at this point.
After that excitement died down, Gary casually handed me a beat up box, which looked like one of the boxes that you buy stuff from HSN in – blue velvet on the outside, coins in capsules on the inside. He was clearly not expecting much out of this set, thinking it was worth “sentimental” value at most. He was wrong.
I opened the box, and immediately saw four coins that caught my eye. They were gold! And half an ounce each. I rushed over to the computer, not knowing much about world coins, and googled “Seoul Korean Olympic Coin Set” and found out the value. The set is probably $2,300 worth of coins, and I told Gary – he was absolutely stunned. As if the 09SVDB wasn’t good enough, this unassuming little case had over $2,000 in it!
Gary went outside for a smoke break, and had a talk with his girlfriend – they had decided to have me sell all the coins, which I’m happy to do. I had an excellent time looking through all the coins, and now I get to spend a lot more time with them cataloguing them and listing them for sale!
Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
Fast forward to today, and I met Gary at his brother’s house, and he brought his entire coin collection.
In the collection is probably upwards of 200 coins, all raw, ranging from a draped bust half cent to a 1988 Korean Olympics commemorative.
I walked into the kitchen, and spread out on the table are six boxes, four of which I recognized immediately. They were the no-longer-produced PCGS slab storage boxes, the green ones. My heart skipped a beat as I thought perhaps all of his coins were already certified, but I later found out that that was not the case.
I opened up the first box, which contained halves. The first coin I pulled out was a seated half, nothing too special, worth maybe $40 or so.
The next few PCGS boxes proved to be just as the first, some decent coins, but none worth more than $50 or so.
There was a box he had been guarding the entire time – his box of silver dollars. There was probably a dozen or so silver dollars in that box, including a gorgeous 1992 silver eagle with a nice electric blue and pink toning. This box was probably worth $300.
The final box was a small plastic cream-colored box, and it was the box that surprised me the most. The first coin I pulled out was a VF 1857 Flying Eagle cent, followed by two of its brothers. I also found an 1803 Draped Bust Half Cent, several large cents, and a handful of 2c pieces.
The last coin in the box, believe it or not, was a 1909 S VDB Lincoln Cent. My heart skipped several beats at that moment, furiously flipping through my pricing guides and various other literature to try and a) determine authenticity, and b) give a rough estimate of value. I was not able to determine authenticity with 100% certainty, so it’s heading off to NGC this week for an Express service, so they can tell me if it’s authentic
After I fumbled through the pages, my hands shaking all the while, I started quoting numbers. You could see Gary’s eyes getting bigger and bigger as I rattled off numbers. He couldn’t believe that something as mundane as a Lincoln cent could be worth anywhere near as much as it is. If the coin is genuine, I suspect it will come back around EF40, and it’s not been cleaned or recolored, so it should slab. The only thing Im worried about is the possibility of an added mintmark at this point.
After that excitement died down, Gary casually handed me a beat up box, which looked like one of the boxes that you buy stuff from HSN in – blue velvet on the outside, coins in capsules on the inside. He was clearly not expecting much out of this set, thinking it was worth “sentimental” value at most. He was wrong.
I opened the box, and immediately saw four coins that caught my eye. They were gold! And half an ounce each. I rushed over to the computer, not knowing much about world coins, and googled “Seoul Korean Olympic Coin Set” and found out the value. The set is probably $2,300 worth of coins, and I told Gary – he was absolutely stunned. As if the 09SVDB wasn’t good enough, this unassuming little case had over $2,000 in it!
Gary went outside for a smoke break, and had a talk with his girlfriend – they had decided to have me sell all the coins, which I’m happy to do. I had an excellent time looking through all the coins, and now I get to spend a lot more time with them cataloguing them and listing them for sale!
Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
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Edited: Just did the list and goofed up already; there fixed.
Way to go Chad.
......chad, that sounds like quite a rewarding saturday!!
Even if the old woman down the street dumps a
Rice Krispies Marshmallow Treat in my Trick or Treat
bag tonight, that still beats my Saturday!!
~
"America suffers today from too much pluribus and not enough unum.".....Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
I couldn't sleep a wink last night, and I woke up at 8:00 ready and anxious to go. We weren't due to arrive at his brother's house until 11 though!
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I'd like to spend some Saturday's like that!
The name is LEE!
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
I found one coin I overlooked, and Gary will be happy to know that his 1917 Type 1 SLQ is worth about 10x more than he thought it was
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I think it would be cool to see the entire collection.
BST Transactions: DonnyJf, MrOrganic, Justanothercoinaddict, Fivecents, Slq, Jdimmick,
Robb, Tee135, Ibzman350, Mercfan, Outhaul, Erickso1, Cugamongacoins, Indiananationals, Wayne Herndon
Negative BST Transactions:
<< <i>If you have time are you planning on taking pics and posting them?
I think it would be cool to see the entire collection. >>
You'll see a large percentage of it on the BST in the next few days
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