"I Don't Believe It" Coin Stories

DRUNNER

Let's hear the strange but true . . . and I'll start.

Verifiable, and I've seen the coin.

Local collector here in SLC stops by our main shop in town and looks at the inventory. He is (at the time) collecting rather shlocky "dreck" but having a fun time doing it. He walks out of the shop and heads to his car down 3rd South here in town when he is approached by a vagrant/homeless/down on his luck man who asks if he is willing to buy a few 'silver quarters'. The guy is willing to sell at double face (at the time, silver is about 5-6x face) and so our collector says yes and forks over $2.00 for 4 silver quarters. He drops them in his pocket, scurries to his car, and heads home. He gets home and looks at the coins, finding 2 Barber quarters and 2 Washies, all 4 worn down to G4 levels. He hasn't got a clue what he has bought, so he goes (of all things) to a RedBook.

The Washies are common and actually about AG 1940s type coins, but worth the silver. One of the Barbers is a common (not sure of the date . . . I could call him now but am having too much fun posting), and the other he reads as a special date. He calls me.

"Hey, I'm not sure what I've got here, but the RedBook says this quarter I bought today is worth a lot."

"Really Larry, how did you get it?"

"Oh this guy walked up to me outside _______ Coin Shop."

"So, what is the date?"

"Well, it says 1901, and the mintmark on the back is an "S".

"Uh, are you sure?"

"Yeah, the rim is a little weak, but the RedBook says it is worth a lot."

In conclusion. a 1901-S in AG3 / G4 for 50 cents. He still has it to this day. Just purchased for about 1/2 bullion value along with 3 other quarters.

Yes . . . true. Couldn't have happened to a nicer or more naive guy.

Drunner

TexasNationals

I see bad things originating from this thread, rips and bashing, rips and bashing.

I was at my favorite shop a month or two ago and the dealer is selling an S-VDB in AU to a collector, the guy is looping the coinover and over and the old man, girlfriends dad i guess asked to see the washington quarters. The dealer was telling him about the quarters and stops, looks at me and tosses across the counter a 1932-S wahie in VF/XF out of the x time face melt bucket. Someone could have got a nice score.

LostSisler

Someone I know used to be able to run around the Denver Mint anytime he wanted to as a kid.
He was there when the 64 Peace Dollars were struck and says he could have easily bought one at the time for face no problem.

OchoReales

I was set up at a show in West Palm Beach back in 1996 when a guy in his mid 40's walks up with his wife and offers me a coin that he said he received some 30 years earlier as a tip from one of his 'regulars' (he had a newspaper route). He proceeds to tell me that he was turned down by 5 or so other dealers because they were not sure if the coin (raw) was real. I immediately made him an offer (after inspecting the coin) and, after discussing it with his wife, agreed to sell. Upon receiving the coin back from our hosts (in an AU53 holder), the 1870 CC Seated Dollar that I purchased that day was sold within hours. I only wish I had made as much as the son of a gun that sold it to me. I always knew that I should have had a newspaper route as a kid!

About 4 years ago, I purchased a wholesale lot of gold coins from another dealer who wanted 'out of the business'. The 1859 $5 coin intrigued me most. As a high AU with fully PL surfaces, I decided to hold on to the coin for a bit. Upon careful study, I was sure that the coin was indeed a mishandled PROOF. Now came the task of convincing one of the services of the same. Our hosts decided on AU58PL. A few months later I was talking to Ron Karp, (who handles this type of material with some frequency) at a national show. I told him about the coin and he was very interested in examining it. When I showed him the coin, he felt that I was correct in my assumption based on what he knew about the PROOFS of that year. I left the coin with him and a week later, he called me to say that the coin was coming to me from NGC in a PF58 holder. Within a few weeks, the coin found a new home and Ron and I split the profit down the middle. Sometimes, it's WHO you know!

Having had the pleasure of examining 10's of thousands of raw UNC Morgans and Peace Dollars, I cherrypicked 2-1923 Tail on O coins, VAM 1C (the first went PCGS 64((LDS)) and sold to one of our board members through another former board member and the second went NGC 62 EDS). I then proceeded to cherry 2-1902 O Elite Clashed Die Morgans (the first piece garnering 65 at PCGS and brokered through the same former board member and the second that I sold raw as a 62). The "I Don't Believe It" part is that I did this in the span of two years (2004-2006)!

Back in 1995, I received a call from a gentleman who had done a small amount of business with me over a six month period. He told me about a friend who had approximately 2-3 bags of Silver Dollars that he wanted to sell. Always the skeptic, I told him to have his 'friend' call me. The next week, I received a call from Jack Goodberg, the man who is credited in the Les and Sue Fox book, Silver Dollar Fortune Telling, as having coined the phrase, "The Great Silver Dollar Sell Off of the Sixties". As it turns out, Jack was a retired New York City police officer who, in 1963 (if my failing memory serves) travelled to DC to purchase 5 to 7 (again, from memory) bags of Dollars from the Treasury. The long and the short of it is this; it took three different trips, over a six month period (Jack wanted to liquidate slowly) to purchase 2 1/2 bags of Morgans (with close to half of the coins being original UNC CC's) with the creme de la creme being three (3) rolls of 1890 CC Tail Bar coins (you read that right!, 60 coins). Back then, there was almost NO excitement over these coins (except from me)! Having purchased the coins for $185 each, I finally sold the rolls to a fellow dealer (David Weinstein) at the Sheraton Harbour Key in Clearwater, Florida (back when the show was still great) for the grand sum of $6300/roll or $210/coin. Today, these coins in MS63 must be worth $3,000 each! Oh well! At least David sponsored me for PCGS dealer membership and he introduced me to Jay Cline (of Standing Liberty Quarter Fame), who not only sponsored me as well, but remains a close, personal friend to this day!

In 2004, I cherypicked the finest known 1926 S 'Tear Drop' Quarter (it's a lock 63, shot 64) and promptly sold it to Jay, it whose personal collection it remains!

Since 2005, I've also cherrypicked 2 of the finest known 1897 1's in Neck Indian Cents (raw). I sold the PCGS 64 RB through Bowers and Merena in 2007 (Baltimore) and still have the other (NGC 65 BN). It is currently for sale (Charmy, looking for an upgrade?).

Wow, I can't believe that I remember this many stories, ALL TRUE!

BigE

This story is named "The Penny Pincher In Portland".

Some members were hanging around Coinlieutenants table at the Potland Oregon ANA show in or around 2004, can't remember. I had brought a couple of Indian cents with me to show lakesamman, one was a 1864 L Indian in a pcgs holder and the other was a fairly nice 1867 raw. I left them at the table to be inspected and went outside to the parking lot to get some common indian cents and lincoln wheaties for the scavenger hunt for the children who were allowed to pick one at the table and do something with it, not sure how this exactly worked.

I came back in an dumped the coins into the almost empty cup at the table. Lakesamman had decided to buy the '64L. I showed the 1867 to someone else and left it on top of the flip at the table and was chatting with a member. I forgot about the raw indian for about 15 minutes. A cute little smiling girl came by and said thank you for the indian penny she got out of the cup and strolled off.

A couple of minutes later Coinlieutenant was confronting a middle age guy who had snatched up the kids jar and was hastily pawing through it. Coinlieutenant lost his temper, and litterally had to run the guy off. We started laughing about how rude obnoxious the guy was to take the kids coins.

About this time I noticed the 67 Indian was missing. It had accidentally ended up in the kiddie jar, and we figured out that the cute little girl belonged to the selfish obnoxious man!-------------------BigE

Jinx86

Waiting on a dealer to pull something out of his back room, I found myself sifting though a bin of Peace/Morgans mixed. In the first handful found a date the seemed out of place. Not being a big collector of Peace Dollars I set it aside to purchase with the rest of my order. Dealer walks back up from with my box and sees I found a few things for him to add up. He knew where the dollar came from and gave me the $17 price just like everything else in the bin. So I paid the dealer and went home sifted though what I had bought. WOW thats more then I paid for the whole box. The Peace Dollar turned out to be a 1928 in what I graded as vf-xf but the dealer saw it as a XF45 and made a offer inline with that, told him I'll take half of it. I told him the short story of how I got the Dollar and we laugh...He now looks closer at his generic silver. And I still bring up the 28 Peace.

coinguy1

When I was still at NGC someone called and said he needed to get some coins re-holdered. His story was that he was in the midst of a divorce, that he kept his coins hidden in an outdoor grille, one day his (soon-to-be ex) wife found them and lit the grille. Let's just say that I was somewhat skeptical.

Well, the coins arrived, the holders were fairly badly warped and melted looking and smelled exactly as I would have expected, based on the story I had been told. True story!

OchoReales

Well, the coins arrived, the holders were fairly badly warped and melted looking and smelled exactly as I would have expected, based on the story I had been told. True story!

Mark, were the coins okay?!?

Swampboy

<< <i>When I was still at NGC someone called and said he needed to get some coins re-holdered. His story was that he was in the midst of a divorce, that he kept his coins hidden in an outdoor grille, one day his (soon-to-be ex) wife found them and lit the grille. Let's just say that I was somewhat skeptical.

Well, the coins arrived, the holders were fairly badly warped and melted looking and smelled exactly as I would have expected, based on the story I had been told. True story! >>

rld14

I have a lot of junk silver in bags, one of which is $1,000 face of Walkers. So I got bored one day and decided to look through it. Lots and lots of VF/XF 41-7s..etc... some real slick earlier coins.

And a neat VF or so '38. With a little raised "D" on the back

Not quite on the same level as some of the finds here..but still...

Kablemodem

I got a 2009 quarter in change yesterday.

northcoin

My favorite story relates to a "lost' coin that I found. The find was all the better since I did not even remember that the coin had been misplaced and did not know that I still had it. I found it in an envelope along with a bunch of old letters. It was a PCGS MS62 High Relief St. Gaudens that I had won in an auction years earlier.





(And here is my kid "the background actor" FOUND on LOST [The Man in Blue. lol]:

GoldenEyeNumismatics

While an intern at the Nevada State Museum I was going through a collection donated about 80 years ago, and which had laid dormant for about 60 years. Most of it was junk Indian Head Cents, random tokens and medals. I picked up a manilla envelope and was pleased to feel something with heft inside. This slipped out:



And the next one was this:


The trade dollar was determined to be an 1873-CC and was PCGS certified AU55, broadstruck with full obverse brockage. The half was called AU58, reverse die cap.

Elcontador

A friend at the gym said he had some "old coins" and asked me to look at them. I said, "sure, Don, bring them over."

This turned out to be stuff that had been sitting I don't know where for the last 40 years. I catalogued it for him on an excel spreadsheet. After a few hours, all I saw were hundreds of Wheaties from the 40s and 50s, typically in VF. A few from the late 50s had a bit of mint luster. There was the obligatory roll of circ. Mercs from 1939 onward in VG-VF, the well worn sixty War Nickels, and the roll of common date buffs.

I was beginning to ask myself why I went along with this. Then I saw the type coins. They appeared to be all fillers or environmentally damaged Liberty Nickels, Barber Dimes, and IHCs. In four hours, I hadn't seen anything worth $3. Then I found an 1865 3 Cent Nickel in fine, mixed in with some dimes. The IHCs were all environmentally damaged, except for three of them. Two were G-4. One, which looked like it had been in a roadbed for decades, but had full liberty,2 1/2 diamonds, was a 1908. I said, "what the h*ll," and turned it over. I was greeted with a big 'S' below the wreath.

I returned the coins to Don, along with the excel spreadsheet. He asked me whether I found anything interesting, and I told him about the 08 S and the 3 Cent Nickel. He insisted I keep the 08 S. I then soaked it in olive oil & got most of the gunk off of it. It looks like a VF 35.

Stew

Very cool stories loved reading them.

One funny little coin incident comes to mind
In the crazy days shortly after the release of the 2009 Lincoln LP1 (Log Cabin reverse)
While most of us were watching the ensuing insanity of people paying $100.00 for a roll
and $1,000 for a case of these new cents.
My 16 year old at the time was visiting his girlfriend. He and his girlfriend were asked by her mother
to run an errand to the local Walgreens around the corner from her house.
to make a couple purchases for her. When they make the purchases my son notices
two 2009 Lincoln LP1's in the change, Immediately asks the cashier if he can see the
store manager. The cashier thought she had done something wrong.
He assured her that she had done nothing wrong and explained about
the insanity surrounding these newly released coins.
The manager comes out and he asks her if she would happen to have any more of these
Cents that he could buy from her after explaining how hard it is to find them.
She takes him and his girlfriend to the back office of the store and pulls out all that she has
and says this is all of them, You are welcome to them if you want.
He bought all 11 rolls that she had. Called me as soon as he left the store
Sounding as excited as when he was 5 years old on Christmas morning when he got his first dirt bike.
to tell me of his find. Though they are worth no where what they were in those crazy days after the release
he still has those 11 rolls in a small box in my safe marked with the date and place that he
found them. That memory is worth way more than any amount of money we could
have got for them on E-bay at the time that the coin collecting world went slightly
insane over that Lincoln Cent release. It was a very fun time in coin collecting.

Stew

coinguy1

<< <i>Well, the coins arrived, the holders were fairly badly warped and melted looking and smelled exactly as I would have expected, based on the story I had been told. True story!

Mark, were the coins okay?!? >>

Sorry that I left that part out. Remarkably, the coins were fine, so we re-holdered them.

coinguy1

In the early 80's, I was an auction consignment coordinator for Steve Ivy Numismatic Auctions. One day, I received a call from a soft-spoken, low key potential consignor. He said that he had an uncirculated example of a Three Legged Buffalo Nickel, an 1892-S Morgan Dollar, an 1897-O Morgan Dollar and a partial roll of 1858 Stars Obverse Seated Liberty Half Dimes. Sadly, I was accustomed to consignors having value and quality which were far less than what they thought they had. So my expectations were on the low side.

When the package arrived I opened it without much anticipation. And was I ever surprised! This was prior to the advent of the major grading companies, so the coins were not certified. But as best I remember, the Three Legged Nickel was a choice to gem unc. The 1897-O Dollar was a choice, near gem, attractive DMPL example. And the (partial roll of) 1858 Half Dimes, accompanied by a an old bank wrapper, were glistening, essentially untoned choice uncirculated pieces. I believe there were between 20 to 30 of them.

Oh, in case you're wondering about the 1892-S Morgan Dollar.....

Like the other individual cons, it was in a paper envelope. And as I removed it, I was expecting to see an AU. As I examined it, I was stunned and spellbound. Perhaps I was missing something, or dreaming, because it looked like a nearly flawless gem. I showed it to a couple of other numismatists there and they agreed. I even remember who bought the coin.

Just in case and just for fun, I just Googled "Steve Ivy 1892-s Morgan Dollar" And lo and behold, this is what I found:

"What every silver dollar buyer should know
By Steve Ivy, Ron Howard

.......In the December, 1981 ANA Building Fund Sale conducted by Steve Ivy Numismatic Auctions, a superb MS(67) 1982-S was offered. It was described as having a frosty obverse and a semiprooflike reverse. Dealer Charles Anastasio of Charles Coin Company purchased that magnificent specimen and immediately resold it to one of his better clients, a quality conscious collector from New Jersey...."

ricko

Certainly not in line with some of the finds above, but significant. In the late 90's, I had been trying to acquire a 1995 ASE W (having passed up on the initial offering). After losing two bidding contests on ebay, I received an email from an individual in NJ (I was living in Seattle). He said he had one, encapsulated and graded, and offered it to me at an extremely attractive price (They were selling for two grand at the time). I called him on the number he gave me, and said I usually like to see what I am buying. He said, "No problem, I will ship it to you, if you like it, send me a check." I replied that was very generous, and trusting, since you do not know me. He said, "Well, I am an attorney, so I am not worried. I took beating on some stock shorts and need some cash to cover them. I am not a collector, this was just an investment." I received the coin, PCGS encapsulated as he promised. Sent the cash (less than a quarter of it's 'then' value, and we were both very happy. Cheers, RickO

mkman123

WOWZERS, these are some UNBELIEVABLE stories!

At the local flea market I was able to get some 90% silver for as low as 3x fv and this was just a few months ago!!!

GRANDAM

I was set-up up at a show in Louisville, Ky a few years ago. As always I had a case full of PCGS slabbed IKE Dollars on display.

Therefore all the IKE guys at the show stopped by my table and looked at and talked IKE's. There were 3 guys in particuliar that were hard core IKE guys. They asked about 1972-P Ty 2's and 1971-S Peg Legs and I showed them what I had and sold a couple of coins.

One guy mentioned how he had just sorted threw a pile of circulated IKE's and found a VF Ty 2. The other (2) guys had mentioned how they had checked the other dealers stock but no luck finding anything.

I mention the above so that it is clear that there were at least (3) people checking for IKE varieties at this show before I had a chance to even look

Well about 3:00 PM things slowed down so I locked up my cases and deceided to check the floor for a few minutes. I went down the aisle just to the left of me and was checking out what was in the other guys cases. I saw a IKE in a cardboard 2 x 2 with a wrinkled up plastic window so bad that it was hard to see the coin very well. It did have a date on it of 1972-P so I asked to look at it. When I was handed the coin I was impressed with the quality thinking it was a sure fire lock MS64. When I turned it over I couldn't believe it. It WAS a Ty 2!!!!!

I asked the dealer how much and it was priced at $2.50 so I bought it. When I got back to my table I removed it from the 2 x 2 and realized I had hit the jackpot. The coin was a solid MS65 IMHO

I sent the coin to PCGS and they agreed and graded it MS65. Below is the coin.



GrandAm

jessecarlk

Believe it or not, I know the person who found the 1922 High Relief Peace Dollar and was about to sell it for $7 along with a bunch of other junk Peace Dollars, but thought it looked a little different and set it aside. It is still the only one known.

shorecoll

Mine isn't big money individual coins as the others, and I've mentioned it on here before. 20 years ago I got a call from an elderly vest pocket dealer friend of mine, could I come help him sort some Barber halves. I got to his house and asked where they were. He said, "in my truck". We go to the back yard and there's an small (S-10 size) pickup with a 55 gallon drum in the back. Ok, where are the halves? "In the drum". The drum was full to the top, as many as it could hold and still be sealed. We sorted them on the dining room table and my friend was afraid it would fall through the floor. Mostly AG (but through AU, no Uncs), but multiple roll sets. I bought G, VG and VF sets because that's all the money I had.

cape

The craziest thing that happened to me about 3 years ago I went to the money show in Houston and Gus Tiso told me he had a coin put aside for me, it happened to be a 1919 s buffalo in pcgs ms 64 , without even looking at it I told him I would buy it as I know he has a great eye for coins. After examining the coin I felt it belonged in a ms 65 holder and the next show I that I went to was the FEB Long Beach show. At this show I cracked out the coin and decided to try Ngc for the upgrade- to my surprise Ngc told me the coin had an added mint mark. Lets say I was in shock and decided that I would go over to the dealer at the show that was selling microscopes and ask if I could check out this coin, he told me no problem at all. Under magnification I could see the flow lines of the nickel all together including through the mint mark and I Became CONVINCED that Ngc made a mistake. At this point I paid for the 2-4 hr service with Pcgs and after receiving the coin back at the table ..... shaking the box and hoping to hear a slab.... I opened and had a new 1919s in ms 65. I was in total Shock!!!!

secondrepublic

This doesn't compare to the other stories, but I'll post it since it happened to me TODAY... I got a 1935 one dollar silver certificate in change this morning paying for groceries. Nice condition, too! First one I've ever gotten.

tahoe98

<< <i>Certainly not in line with some of the finds above, but significant. In the late 90's, I had been trying to acquire a 1995 ASE W (having passed up on the initial offering). After losing two bidding contests on ebay, I received an email from an individual in NJ (I was living in Seattle). He said he had one, encapsulated and graded, and offered it to me at an extremely attractive price (They were selling for two grand at the time). I called him on the number he gave me, and said I usually like to see what I am buying. He said, "No problem, I will ship it to you, if you like it, send me a check." I replied that was very generous, and trusting, since you do not know me. He said, "Well, I am an attorney, so I am not worried. I took beating on some stock shorts and need some cash to cover them. I am not a collector, this was just an investment." I received the coin, PCGS encapsulated as he promised. Sent the cash (less than a quarter of it's 'then' value, and we were both very happy. Cheers, RickO >>



....great story, ricko! does this guy have anymore coins for sale?

Veep

My Dad and brothers were avid metal detectorists when I was a kid. My oldest brother was looking in an old park near home that dates back to the late 1800's and found an 1877 Indian Head Cent. Fast forward about 20 years and now he's looking in the yard of his huge old house and finds a 1909-S Indian in XF.

At an estate auction one time was a bag of Washington Quarters. I won the bid. Upon looking them over at home, I found six 1932-d quarters. After relieving them of their pvc, I had them all slabbed by ANACS as MS61-62.

northcoin

ArizonaJack

I got an XF-45 1927-D Lincoln and a 1964 dime in change last week. Too bad I did not notice it untill I got home. Someone took dads coin collection to buy something at 7-11 obviously.

EagleEye

I put an obscure token worth $2000 in a recent auction with no reserve. It didn't sell. Afterward, when I got it back, I sold it for close to $2,000.

beartracks42

<< <i>My Dad and brothers were avid metal detectorists when I was a kid. My oldest brother was looking in an old park near home that dates back to the late 1800's and found an 1877 Indian Head Cent. Fast forward about 20 years and now he's looking in the yard of his huge old house and finds a 1909-S Indian in XF.

At an estate auction one time was a bag of Washington Quarters. I won the bid. Upon looking them over at home, I found six 1932-d quarters. After relieving them of their pvc, I had them all slabbed by ANACS as MS61-62. >>




I remember buying one of the MS62 1932-D's from you on the B,S&T. I almost bought the MS61 and should have.

Halfsense

My "I Don't Believe It" numismatic moment was in late July 2003 when the Walton specimen 1913 Liberty nickel was authenticated by a PCGS team at the ANA Baltimore convention.

Several months earlier, as a publicity stunt to promote the convention in the general news media, I created with the ANA and Collectors Universe (and its then subsidiary, Bowers and Merena) a campaign to offer a minimum $1 million for the long-missing coin. (Who knew what condition it would be in? But everyone agreed it would be worth at least a million dollars if it could be authenticated.) Turns out it was with the Walton family all the time, kept in a closet in a house in Virginia for 41 years after Walton's sister was erronously told the coin recovered from the 1962 car wreck that killed George Walton was a fake. A nephew and niece of Walton made arrangements to bring the coin to Baltimore. It was declared genuine after an initial examination in the morning and then a midnight, side-by-side comparison with the four other known 1913 Liberty nickels scheduled for public display at the show.

A full description of these "I Don't Believe It" events can be found in the book, Million Dollar Nickels (Zyruss Press) by Paul Montgomery, Mark Borckardt and Ray Knight.

Silverstate

<< <i>When I was still at NGC someone called and said he needed to get some coins re-holdered. His story was that he was in the midst of a divorce, that he kept his coins hidden in an outdoor grille, one day his (soon-to-be ex) wife found them and lit the grille. Let's just say that I was somewhat skeptical.

Well, the coins arrived, the holders were fairly badly warped and melted looking and smelled exactly as I would have expected, based on the story I had been told. True story! >>



That's a new way to get AT !!

PerryHall

<< <i>My "I Don't Believe It" numismatic moment was in late July 2003 when the Walton specimen 1913 Liberty nickel was authenticated by a PCGS team at the ANA Baltimore convention.

Several months earlier, as a publicity stunt to promote the convention in the general news media, I created with the ANA and Collectors Universe (and its then subsidiary, Bowers and Merena) a campaign to offer a minimum $1 million for the long-missing coin. (Who knew what condition it would be in? But everyone agreed it would be worth at least a million dollars if it could be authenticated.) Turns out it was with the Walton family all the time, kept in a closet in a house in Virginia for 41 years after Walton's sister was erronously told the coin recovered from the 1962 car wreck that killed George Walton was a fake. A nephew and niece of Walton made arrangements to bring the coin to Baltimore. It was declared genuine after an initial examination in the morning and then a midnight, side-by-side comparison with the four other known 1913 Liberty nickels scheduled for public display at the show.

A full description of these "I Don't Believe It" events can be found in the book, Million Dollar Nickels (Zyruss Press) by Paul Montgomery, Mark Borckardt and Ray Knight. >>



I remember this story. Wasn't it Stacks that told them that their 1913 Liberty head nickel was fake? Good thing they didn't just throw it away.

coinguy1

<< <i>

<< <i>My "I Don't Believe It" numismatic moment was in late July 2003 when the Walton specimen 1913 Liberty nickel was authenticated by a PCGS team at the ANA Baltimore convention.

Several months earlier, as a publicity stunt to promote the convention in the general news media, I created with the ANA and Collectors Universe (and its then subsidiary, Bowers and Merena) a campaign to offer a minimum $1 million for the long-missing coin. (Who knew what condition it would be in? But everyone agreed it would be worth at least a million dollars if it could be authenticated.) Turns out it was with the Walton family all the time, kept in a closet in a house in Virginia for 41 years after Walton's sister was erronously told the coin recovered from the 1962 car wreck that killed George Walton was a fake. A nephew and niece of Walton made arrangements to bring the coin to Baltimore. It was declared genuine after an initial examination in the morning and then a midnight, side-by-side comparison with the four other known 1913 Liberty nickels scheduled for public display at the show.

A full description of these "I Don't Believe It" events can be found in the book, Million Dollar Nickels (Zyruss Press) by Paul Montgomery, Mark Borckardt and Ray Knight. >>



I remember this story. Wasn't it Stacks that told them that their 1913 Liberty head nickel was fake? Good thing they didn't just throw it away. >>

Yes and yes.

RWB

Believe it or not, I know the person who found the 1922 High Relief Peace Dollar and was about to sell it for $7 along with a bunch of other junk Peace Dollars, but thought it looked a little different and set it aside. It is still the only one known.

Do you mean "1922 Medium Relief Peace dollar?" There are several 1922 HR.

crypto79

yes he does

OchoReales

ttt, as I liked re-reading some of the stories (including mine). Any stories from Julian? (hint, hint)

droopyd

Back in the '60s, I received a very well-struck AU 1931-S Lincoln in change.... from a coin store.

coindeuce

I have a customer who is in essence a "vest pocket" dealer. On his most recent trip to the shop, he related the story of having made the aquaintance of a native Hawaiian. It seems that the Hawaiian had sold him several BU rolls of 1883 Kingdom of Hawaii quarter dollars. I am waiting for a personal inspection of them.

coindeuce

A member of this forum bought a sight unseen deal of average circ. U.S. 90 % quarters, including many dateless Standing Liberty. In the course of inspecting the dateless standing Liberty type for Type 1 examples, a "no stars" reverse was flipped over and it displayed a full date. He handed the coin to his wife and said "honey, please tell me what numbers you see on the coin below the figure of Liberty." She replied "well, 1-9-1-6. Why?" The coin graded F15 soon thereafter with our host...

Juan

Not a big deal but interesting and funny. I was in San Diego last Oct and wanted something from the vending machines so I stuck a five dollar bill in the change machine and out come five dollars worth of quarters. I bought soem candy from the vending machine and went back to sit with my wife and noted I had gotten a 1964 D quarter out of the change machine. Well, I figured this was better than the slots so I went back and stuck another five inthe change machine and got only clad. I put the silver quarter in a flip and labeled it San Diego.

silverpop

some years ago the coin shop i used to shop at had some silver morgans on sale i went in and looked i bought me a 1899o and a 1921 morgan for $12.00 each

a week went by and i showed the 1899o off on a coin site and was told it was a VAM 18 cause of the die crack running though the letters and part of the wing

1899o VAM 18


1921 Morgan dollar