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Why Coin Dealers Drink--Part CCCCVIII

CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,632 ✭✭✭✭✭
Series of postings from the dealer-to-dealer network today:

True call this morning: " I have some coins that are marked copy on them. Are they worth as much as the real thing? "

(Later from the same dealer)

… and as I politely try to explain that copies and reproductions
would have very little value compared to the originals, he keeps interrupting telling me that they are very valuable, he knows because he saw it on the Internet....

(Later from a different dealer)

.... had a guy come in with a $10 Confederate note
with FACSIMILE printed in the lower right hand corner.
I explain to him what that means and that the note has no
value, but if it had been real I would have paid him $20
for it. 30 minutes later a different guy comes in with
a $10 Confederate note with the lower right corner torn off.
hmmmmm....... I wonder......

(Later from a different dealer)

... years ago I had somebody call the store with a Confederate note. I went through the usual questions, including asking if it had the word FACSIMILE in the lower left border of the reverse. It did. I explained what that meant and told him it had no value.

Half an hour later a guy with the same voice comes in with the same
denomination note with the area where the word FACSIMILE was torn off......

Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.

Comments

  • WTCGWTCG Posts: 8,940 ✭✭✭
    One time I had someone call up who said they had a $1000 note they wanted to sell. I met with them and their note turned out to be a plastic bookmark with a picture of a $1000 note on one side. Worst of all the guy was genuinely bummed out when he got the cold truth.
    Follow me on Twitter @wtcgroup
    Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"
  • mrpotatoheaddmrpotatoheadd Posts: 7,576 ✭✭✭
    How about a $1000 gold coin? Try telling people these aren't worth much more than 25 cents or so...

    image
  • s4nys4ny Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭
    Really hilarious!
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,632 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>How about a $1000 gold coin? Try telling people these aren't worth much more than 25 cents or so...

    image >>



    Had that problem in Chicago ever since that design came out.
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • AMRCAMRC Posts: 4,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Reminds me of the time I had a customer who had one of those $100 facsimile made of 1 ounce of .999 Silver. It was the same size as a hundred dollar bill and looked very rea, and he believed that he could take it to the bank and trade in for $100, even though is clearly said facsimile on it.

    MLAeBayNumismatics: "The greatest hobby in the world!"
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  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Unbelievable...even though true.... love these threads...Cheers, RickO
  • Is it possible those Confederate notes were printed in Facsimile, Alabama?

    Unreal.
    Let's try not to get upset.
  • A Facsimile just isn't worth as much now as it used to be. Back in 1882, at the Bushnell sale, the Brasher Doubloon sold for $505 and the "Good Samaritan Shilling" sold for $650, making the "Good Samaritan Shilling" perhaps the most valuable U. S. coin. There are two examples known. The Pembroke piece has the word "Facsimile" at the top. The Bushnell piece is missing this legend. That makes the Bushnell piece a copy of a Facsimile without the Facsimile marking.

    Read the whole story in "The Secret of the Good Samaritan Shilling" by Eric P. Newman. In my opinion it is one of the best pieces of numismatic scholarship ever.
  • TookybanditTookybandit Posts: 3,414 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Definitely grounds for the dealer to hit the bottle.....Make mine a double IPA! >>




    image
  • OldEastsideOldEastside Posts: 4,602 ✭✭✭✭✭
    image

    Steve
    Promote the Hobby
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,445 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Shoot - can't drink yet - gotta go to work! image Gotta love these stories.

    JH - thanks for the story - will need to read the rest.
    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko, Big Moose, Cardinal.
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,632 ✭✭✭✭✭
    A followup today:

    Had a call a few years back, the man had a rare U.S. bill from the
    1830's. I told him there were copies of this bill, look like they are
    printed
    on parchment, but the genuine ones are light colored, printed
    with a greenish ink. Half hour later, he showed me the bill -- it was the
    brown parchment copy, lightly colored with a green crayon. I told him he
    would have to get it authenicated, gave him the phone # of one of the
    services.
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • steelieleesteelielee Posts: 1,172 ✭✭✭


    << <i>A followup today:

    Had a call a few years back, the man had a rare U.S. bill from the
    1830's. I told him there were copies of this bill, look like they are
    printed
    on parchment, but the genuine ones are light colored, printed
    with a greenish ink. Half hour later, he showed me the bill -- it was the
    brown parchment copy, lightly colored with a green crayon. I told him he
    would have to get it authenicated, gave him the phone # of one of the
    services. >>



    Did he stay in the lines? Too funny.....
    ************************************

    Many successful BST transactions with dozens of board members, references on request.
  • yosclimberyosclimber Posts: 5,000 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Here's a nice summary of Eric P. Neuman's research / book on the Good Samaritan Shilling:
    http://www.coinworld.com/articles/newman-exposes-fakest-coin
  • PRECIOUSMENTALPRECIOUSMENTAL Posts: 961 ✭✭✭✭
    "TRVST" (RSE)
    *rare spelling error.
  • SoCalBigMarkSoCalBigMark Posts: 2,795 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If every collector was sharp as most of the folks on this forum, a lot less brick and mortars would be around. The sword cuts both ways.
  • SeattleSlammerSeattleSlammer Posts: 10,047 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>If every collector was sharp as most of the folks on this forum, a lot less brick and mortars would be around. The sword cuts both ways. >>





    image
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,642 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>If every collector was sharp as most of the folks on this forum, a lot less brick and mortars would be around. The sword cuts both ways. >>



    I can appreciate ignorance - nobody can know everything - it's the arrogance that's hard to stomach.
  • DaveGDaveG Posts: 3,535
    What I've never understood is the number of people who seem not only prepared to believe something that they "heard on the radio" or "heard from a friend", but who are willing to take the time to go into someone's place of business and, essentially, pull some sort of hustle. (And then they get made when you call them on their attempted hustle!)

    Sometimes I really wonder about the intelligence (and honesty) of "ordinary" people.

    Check out the Southern Gold Society

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