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So where is the most unusual place you have found a collectible coin?

SanctionIISanctionII Posts: 12,543 ✭✭✭✭✭
Or the most unusual place where you have heard others have found collectible coins?

This does not include buried treasure, shipwreck coins, etc. It includes more pedestrian locations.

I have found collectible coins (90% silver when I was a pup) in furniture and in the gaps between floors and baseboards at my parents home; lying on the floor at stores, lying on the ground in parking lots, etc.

I have heard of people finding collectible coins in and under the seats of old cars [cars dating from the mid 1960's on back], in old vending machines, in old slot machines, in old pay telephones. I have also thought that many collectible coins are just waiting to be found in old fountains and wishing wells.

How about you?

Comments

  • On the floor of my high school library. Somebody had left a lonely cent on the ground. I picked it up... a nice AU 1972 DDO! This was several years ago.
  • RichieURichRichieURich Posts: 8,550 ✭✭✭✭✭
    From a copier machine at the University of Michigan in 1977 - - a circulated 1950-D nickel.

    An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.

  • WoodenJeffersonWoodenJefferson Posts: 6,491 ✭✭✭✭
    I told the story years ago about finding a 1812 half dollar stuck into the rim of a shot glass, that was inside a tall farm house china cabinet.
    Chat Board Lingo

    "Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
  • coindeucecoindeuce Posts: 13,496 ✭✭✭✭✭
    A former neighbor had once disassembled the tubular brass frame of a mission style bed, and he found a Indian Head Quarter Eagle in Mint State inside the headframe.

    A work associate previously lived in a circa 1915 house in a city neighborhood. While doing laundry in the low ceiling basement one day, the movement of someone across the first floor above him caused a large cent to dislodge from one of the rafter beams, where it had been apparently placed as a shim a long time ago.

    "Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
    http://www.american-legacy-coins.com

  • stealerstealer Posts: 4,029 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>A former neighbor had once disassembled the tubular brass frame of a mission style bed, and he found a Indian Head Quarter Eagle in Mint State inside the headframe. >>


    What was it doing in there? image
  • lasvegasteddylasvegasteddy Posts: 10,421 ✭✭✭
    1972 i was 10 and walking home in st.louis when i found an 1895 nickel on the shoulder of the road
    everything in life is but merely on loan to us by our appreciation....lose your appreciation and see


  • coindeucecoindeuce Posts: 13,496 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>A former neighbor had once disassembled the tubular brass frame of a mission style bed, and he found a Indian Head Quarter Eagle in Mint State inside the headframe. >>


    What was it doing in there? image >>



    We looked for any flies that could have been on the wall when it was placed there, but had no luck at all.image

    "Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
    http://www.american-legacy-coins.com

  • dogwooddogwood Posts: 1,935 ✭✭✭✭
    As an antique furniture collector, and professional refinisher, I dream about the day I cut into an old sofa and find an MS 01-s Quarter.
    But the best I can relate was a 50's Danish dresser I got from a thrift store with a jammed shut drawer that had a bunch of wheaties, and some silver 20th century circ stuff buried in a little mess of personal junk.
    We're all born MS70. I'm about a Fine 15 right now.
  • stealerstealer Posts: 4,029 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>

    << <i>A former neighbor had once disassembled the tubular brass frame of a mission style bed, and he found a Indian Head Quarter Eagle in Mint State inside the headframe. >>


    What was it doing in there? image >>



    We looked for any flies that could have been on the wall when it was placed there, but had no luck at all.image >>


    Just thought perchance you had found one image
  • I found a silver quarter in the reject tray of a CoinStar machine at my local Winn Dixie.....
  • I found 2 Liberty Nickels laying on top of the ground in a dirt parking lot while delivering newspapers when I was a kid 35 years ago after a very hard rain.
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,643 ✭✭✭✭✭
    In _______'s [insert least favorite forum character here] collection, of course image
  • AnkurJAnkurJ Posts: 11,370 ✭✭✭✭
    For sale in a vending machine.
    All coins kept in bank vaults.
    PCGS Registries
    Box of 20
    SeaEagleCoins: 11/14/54-4/5/12. Miss you Larry!
  • lkeigwinlkeigwin Posts: 16,893 ✭✭✭✭✭
    So where is the most unusual place you have found a collectible coin?

    Someone post a picture of Ira's toilet seat!
    Lance.
  • kiyotekiyote Posts: 5,588 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Old farmhouses are FULL of loose pocket change from the year they were built on. I found a few wheat cents under the cellar stairs at the family farm in Ohio and haven't even begun looking around the place. (My 80 year old mother still lives there-- it would be in poor taste).

    "I'll split the atom! I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!" -Gef the talking mongoose.
  • TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 44,540 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The most unlikely place was in a "junk box", where many of us find what's collectible.
  • tightbudgettightbudget Posts: 7,299 ✭✭✭
    A 3CS lying by a coin counting machine
  • nwcoastnwcoast Posts: 2,884 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Back in the late 70's we were tearing out some carpet in an old victorian house and I found a pristine 1909 Lincoln cent under the carpet. It was just as bright and perfect as the day it was minted! Wasn't an S on it though. I gave it to a young guy I was working with as he was super excited about it... I wasn't collecting coins in that chapter of my life.

    Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014



  • << <i>In _______'s [insert least favorite forum character here] collection, of course image >>



    Now why did you want to make me a part of this thread?

    Ron

    image
    Collect for the love of the hobby, the beauty of the coins, and enjoy the ride.
  • BarberianBarberian Posts: 4,005 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I found an AU 1876-S dime in shallow water at the edge of a pond.

    3 rim nicks away from Good
  • SaorAlbaSaorAlba Posts: 7,593 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My best kick up the ground and find a coin was back in ca. 1990 when I lived in California - on long drives coming back from down south I would usually stop at Mission San Jose and get a drink and walk around the mission. On this trip I was walking over by the church and spied what looked dark and peaking out from a dry clump of dirt. I sort of nudged it with my foot and it looked like a cent so I bent over and picked it up and cleaned off the dirt. Imagine my surprise to see that the coin had been there at least 50 years, a 1926-S cent that I still have. A nice semi-key date out of the dirt, literally.
    Tir nam beann, nan gleann, s'nan gaisgeach ~ Saorstat Albanaich a nis!
  • ajaanajaan Posts: 17,575 ✭✭✭✭✭
    We bought our current house 4 years ago. In the basement was an old upright piano that was in sorry shape. We had the piano removed and while the guys were taking it out an 1892 nickel fell out.

    DPOTD-3
    'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'

    CU #3245 B.N.A. #428


    Don
  • USMarine6USMarine6 Posts: 1,950 ✭✭✭✭✭
    About a month back my mother in law found a 1846 quarter in her mothers dresser along with two dollars fv of silver dimes
  • Not so much an unusual place, but an unusual circumstance. About 10 years ago, my wife surprised me with a trip to Boston on my birthday. At one point in the day, we stopped at a convenience store for some sodas. In my change was an XF 1892 Indian Head cent. My first thought was that my wife had somehow planted it, but on top of not knowing anything about coins, there's just no way she could have planned it. It was just a cool birthday surprise.
  • ElcontadorElcontador Posts: 7,674 ✭✭✭✭✭
    El Rastro flea market in Madrid, in the summer of 1973. Got an Unc. 1920 P Cent.
    "Vou invadir o Nordeste,
    "Seu cabra da peste,
    "Sou Mangueira......."
  • erwindocerwindoc Posts: 5,270 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Not metal detecting but found a well worn Liberty nickel after plowing up a field. Went back with the detector later and it must have fallen out of another farmers pocket years ago.
  • themasterthemaster Posts: 676 ✭✭✭
    In the mid 60's my family was visiting relatives in Indianapolis. The grown ups were playing cards, so I went out in the backyard to play with their dog. I would throw Danny"s bone and he would retrieve it. I saw something shiny after picking up the bone, and was surprised to find that it was an unc. 1906 Indian Head Cent. My uncle had no idea how it got there. It was my first IHC. I was about 10 years old. I still have the coin. It is part of my complete set of IHC's.


    Have a Great Day!
    Louis
    "If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some." Benjamin Franklin
  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,942 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Most of us probably keep our eyes on the ground more than the average non-collector. A few years back I was walking along the side of one of my properties, a big house from the teens. Lying in the dirt, face up like she'd been dropped yesterday, was a walking liberty half:

    image
    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • I own 2 coin press machines in Gettysburg PA. I get at least 1 silver quarter a month during tourist season
  • MeltdownMeltdown Posts: 8,942 ✭✭✭✭✭
    AUandAG has a great story about being a kid and crawling under the boardwalks in Virgina City and finding gold pieces...

    I don't have any "found" stories yet, but every day I'm looking.

  • I'm waiting to see what Mad Marty says......... image

    image
  • SanctionIISanctionII Posts: 12,543 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I seem to remember that Marty found a 1938 or 1939 proof set at a pawn shop that he bought for less than $200.00 (since the pawn shop owner did not realize the coins were proofs instead of circulation strikes).

    I guess that might qualify as an unusual place to find a collectible coin. Then again, maybe not.

    Perhaps we should take a vote.

    P.S. I do not remember if Marty has found a collectible coin in or around "The Chicken".

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