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Pawn Stars Coin Sighting
erwindoc
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Anyone catch the show last night? They had a colonial piece graded by NGC "Fine Details". Seller wasnt able to get what they wanted, so she walked out. They had offered her $600. Im not sure of the value since that is not my area of expertise, but seemed like a pretty low offer for a coin that old.
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<< <i>I think the seller was looking for 2-3K for the coin. >>
That's more like retail, and not an offer he was likely to receive from a specialist dealer who had a ready customer, let alone some guy in a pawn shop.
Edited to add that this assumes it was a common variety . . .
<< <i>Anyone catch the show last night? They had a colonial piece graded by NGC "Fine Details". Seller wasnt able to get what they wanted, so she walked out. They had offered her $600. Im not sure of the value since that is not my area of expertise, but seemed like a pretty low offer for a coin that old. >>
Age, has little to do with rarity or value since there are many coins which are 1,000 years old that can be purchased for less the $100.
As for the Pawn Stars offer, it sounds about right since a Pawn Shop NEVER offers retail value for anything which comes through their doors. They always offer 50% of value or less depending upon how quickly they feel that can resell the item and their specific comfort level with the piece.
The owner of the coin should have gone to a coin shop if he/she was looking for more but I expect the real motivation was simply in appearing on the TV Show.
IMO, auctioning the coin would present a much better price than any pawn shop would offer.
The name is LEE!
<< <i>
<< <i>Anyone catch the show last night? They had a colonial piece graded by NGC "Fine Details". Seller wasnt able to get what they wanted, so she walked out. They had offered her $600. Im not sure of the value since that is not my area of expertise, but seemed like a pretty low offer for a coin that old. >>
Age, has little to do with rarity or value since there are many coins which are 1,000 years old that can be purchased for less the $100.
As for the Pawn Stars offer, it sounds about right since a Pawn Shop NEVER offers retail value for anything which comes through their doors. They always offer 50% of value or less depending upon how quickly they feel that can resell the item and their specific comfort level with the piece.
The owner of the coin should have gone to a coin shop if he/she was looking for more but I expect the real motivation was simply in appearing on the TV Show.
IMO, auctioning the coin would present a much better price than any pawn shop would offer. >>
I'm guessing a pawn shop is not a high buyer of anything.
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Positive BST as a seller: Namvet69, Lordmarcovan, Bigjpst, Soldi, mustanggt, CoinHoader, moursund, SufinxHi, al410, JWP
Here's a Oak Tree shilling I have in my collection. It is a PCGS EF-45. The strike is not unusual for these coins. If there is interest I'll go into why they look the way they do.
These coins don't come cheap. This one is worth $7 to $8 thousand. If it were better centered and a bit more original, it would be worth $15 thousand. With Massachuestts silver "perfect" is very rare and expensive.
<< <i>It was as Mass Pine Tree 6p graded Fine details 'damaged' by NGC. >>
<< <i>I noticed that NGC had attributed it as an Oak Tree Shilling. >>
?
I never saw the episode, so I don't know what it was.
Here's a Pine Tree six pence, which came after the Oak Tree pieces. Aside the centering, they don't get much better than this one, which grades AU-55.
I knew it would happen.
Here is a Noe 1. This variety is sort of the poster child for Massachusetts silver because it is somewhat common and usually comes well made.
<< <i>
LOL
-Paul
8 Reales Madness Collection
If I'm not mistaken, didn't she go down to $800?
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
<< <i>I wonder if i'm the only one who read "Porn Stars" when scanning all the thread titles on the page... >>
I honestly thought it was just me
what the value was. Thanks to all for
the replies and teaching me something new !!!
I have seen the film a number of times, it is quite good.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
<< <i>I saw the episode last night. Was wondering
what the value was. Thanks to all for
the replies and teaching me something new !!! >>
It's hard to say because I could never get a view of the obverse (tree side) which I think as the really bad side. I think that the piece was concave / convex.
From what I heard she would not budge from $3,000. My guess is a retail value of maybe $1,000 if the obverse was really bad.
<< <i>
<< <i>I saw the episode last night. Was wondering
what the value was. Thanks to all for
the replies and teaching me something new !!! >>
It's hard to say because I could never get a view of the obverse (tree side) which I think as the really bad side. I think that the piece was concave / convex.
From what I heard she would not budge from $3,000. My guess is a retail value of maybe $1,000 if the obverse was really bad. >>
. If there is interest I'll go into why they look the way they do.
I want to know, Bill. Also, nice coins. You do seem to have just about one of everything...with one exception.
Tom
Possibly it was a token or prop "coin", as it was actually illegal to show real coins in films then.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
8 Reales Madness Collection
The photos are not very good. I can't see much detail at all on the obverse.
Did you see them playing poker at the end with each of them starting with 100 silver dollars? Crumbly went all in with a pair of duces and lost.
<< <i> If there is interest I'll go into why they look the way they do.
I want to know, Bill. Also, nice coins. You do seem to have just about one of everything...with one exception. >>
It appears that the Massachusetts silver coins were struck on a device called a rocker press or something like it. Unlike the screw press which works in an up and down motion, the rocker press rolls the coins in a sort of a semi-circle. For this reason many Massachusetts coins are on wavy planchets. This debunks some of the old tales about “witch pieces” that were bent to ward off the evil spirits. The coins were issued bent, and as any collector who has run into bent coins knows, that had a negative effect upon how the coins wore in circulation.
Here are illustrations of a rocker press and a set of rocker dies, which are of European, not Massachusetts, origin.
Rocker press
Rocker dies
According to Louis Jordan, who wrote the book, John Hull, The Mint and the Economics of Massachusetts Coinage, the Pine Tree six pence I displayed earlier was struck on the rocker press on a rolled strip of sterling silver. Then the coins were cut out of the strip with shears with the date and denomination side up so that the person who was doing the cutting would know the denomination of the coin. Since the dies were almost never in the proper alignment, the obverse was off-center. This is a pattern that we see on many Massachusetts silver coins. Here it repeated on this Massachusetts two pence.
The small planchet Pine Tree shillings were stuck on a screw press. Therefore they are usually on a conventional flat planchet as shown by this piece.
I think these explanations give us some interesting insights concerning these wonderful coins.
BTW I look like I have one of everything because I'm a type collector and a numismatic "grazer."
So what is it I don't have?
Tom
<< <i>Thank you bill. Now, as for the Pawn Stars coin, unless it is a rare variety, I still think $ 600 looks like a pretty reasonable offer. >>
Given their position in the rare coin market, I agree.
<< <i>I watched a Bette Davis/Leslie Howard/Humphrey Bogart movie from 1935 called "The Petrified Forest" last night. In one scene Leslie Howard has no money and Bette Davis gives him a silver dollar. I kept trying to see if it was a Morgan or a Peace dollar but I couldn't tell. Great movie by the way, Leslie Howard steals the show but Bogart is of course Bogart while Bette Davis is good but not great IMO. >>
Charley Grapewin steals the show as the penurious Gramp Maple.
I also would have passed on the Snoop Dog doll for $100.
<< <i>Here's a Oak Tree shilling I have in my collection. It is a PCGS EF-45. The strike is not unusual for these coins. If there is interest I'll go into why they look the way they do >>
Bill- your Oak Tree shilling is an absolute beauty!!
It appears to be a token or prop coin with a man's head on one side.
I added the film to my "Coins in Movies" site.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
1. Pawn shops work on triple keystone (300%) profit. The offers they make are sometime more than half of what they will sell the item for. cleaned up for TV so it won't seem like such a rip.
2. The overly scripted (and poorly acted) scenes among the stars are a turn off.
3. I have to feel that many "customers" are just there to be on TV.
Having said this,I think Rick offered a fair price for the piece.It wouldn't be easy for him to sell in his shop.Pawn shops want to move items quickly and Rick wasn't seeing that happening with this particular item hence the low offer.
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
Specialist dealers do well with coins within their specialty. Generalist dealers do well with popular, widely collected numismatic items, but they usually can't get top dollar for esoteric die varieties, die states and the like. Their best play is to buy the coins "right," which some people might think is too low, and sell them to the specialists.
When you are running a pawn shop you are further down in the numismatic pecking order. How many of you go to a pawn shop as your first stop when you are looking for a specific coin? Does your attitude going in say to you, "I should buy things cheaper here?" All of these factors make it harder for a guy like Rick to do well in the coin business, and that's why their offers are "low." No matter what business you are in you can't survive if you buy high and sell low.