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Post your coins with interesting back stories
Boosibri
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Post your coins with interesting back stories...
1. 1852-C $5 P53 CAC
I posted this story in a recent thread. Found in a New Hampshire attic after being lost of or generations
2. 1848 $5 P58 CAC with wild color
Per a well respected dealer, story has it that this coin along with a few others with similar color were found in the cornerstone of a southern church. To be confirmed.
3. 1860 $2.5 Old Reverse P58 CAC
When my steps dad's father passed away a small group of coins was found in his SDB at the small town bank in Empire, MI. This coin was raw, in a shoe box in a small folder with the hand writing of my stepfathers grandfather who was a jeweler in Chicago in 1890's. Along with this piece were several Californian gold fractionals, seated dimes, a few trade dollars and some Morgans. This 1860 $2.5 was the gem of the group .
1. 1852-C $5 P53 CAC
I posted this story in a recent thread. Found in a New Hampshire attic after being lost of or generations
2. 1848 $5 P58 CAC with wild color
Per a well respected dealer, story has it that this coin along with a few others with similar color were found in the cornerstone of a southern church. To be confirmed.
3. 1860 $2.5 Old Reverse P58 CAC
When my steps dad's father passed away a small group of coins was found in his SDB at the small town bank in Empire, MI. This coin was raw, in a shoe box in a small folder with the hand writing of my stepfathers grandfather who was a jeweler in Chicago in 1890's. Along with this piece were several Californian gold fractionals, seated dimes, a few trade dollars and some Morgans. This 1860 $2.5 was the gem of the group .
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Professional numismatist Marc Emory related the following concerning an especially nice 1875 trade dollar:
"As far as trade dollars go, there is a rather famous one I have handled (you did, too at one time), whose pedigree sounds like an old coin dealer’s tall tale: In early February 1975, I was still living in Philadelphia after graduating from college the year before. Early one morning, Bob Riethe, who had a coin shop out in Plymouth Meeting Mall, called me up to crow about the finest trade dollar he had ever seen. He said he had just bought it from Alan Woglom in Chalfont, Pennsylvania for $600—no small sum at the time. He also said it was an 1875 Philadelphia Mint coin. I said to cut out the nonsense, and to tell me what it was he really wanted to talk to me about. He swore it was no joke, so I drove out there swearing plagues upon his house if this was an early April Fool. Furthermore, he owed me $1,240 at the time.
"I arrived at his shop, wading through the snow and slush of the parking lot, and came to his counter in a mood which can politely be described as less than jovial. To boot, he kept me waiting for ten minutes to explain to someone why common silver dollars were common, and that he couldn’t pay $20 for 1922 Peace dollars in VF grade. Finally, he pulled out the coin in question. All was forgiven—provided he realized I wasn’t going to leave his shop without the coin. The 1875 trade dollar he showed me was (and remains today) one of the most exquisite U.S. silver coins I have ever seen. I finally badgered him into letting me have it in lieu of all the money he owed me. I sold it (I wasn’t too flush those days), to my great regret, to Maurice Rosen for $1,900. Maurice worked for First Coinvestors at that time. Maurice left FCI soon after that, and the coin soon appeared in one of their Pine Tree auctions. It was bought by Numismatic Associates of Ashland, Mass. for $3000+ and sold to A.H. Lamborn. His collection was sold (here’s where you come in) as the "Fairfield Collection" by your firm in 1977. The coin brought in excess of $7,000 this time.
"I lost track of it after that, as I was spending most of my time overseas by now. I did see it appear later in an ad by Jack Hertzberg, enclosed in a PCGS holder and graded a conservative MS-68. Where it is now, I don’t know, but someone should be happy with it. To this day it remains one of the two favorite silver coins I ever owned (the other was an 1855-S half dollar that went into James Pryor’s collection)."
MINI-HOARD OF 1878-S TRADE DOLLARS
The following mini-hoard of 1878-S Trade Dollars is one of the many highlights offered in the 1990 ANA Sale. The story behind their discovery and inclusion in this sale is incredible. The consignor, (who we will call "Jim") one of the nicest and most pleasant people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, had elderly next door neighbors that he was very close to. He would help and befriend them whenever the opportunity arose. Little did "Jim" know what was in store. Upon the death of the elderly couple, "Jim" was named executor of the estate - what little there seemed to be - and two requests were made; all financial instruments were to be left to a local university and all personal property would go to the executor. "Jim" went to the bank and opened the safe deposit box. Not expecting to see a great deal, he was taken back by the wealth before his eyes. The wealth however appeared to be all financial and thus left to the university. Among the tens of thousands of dollars in stocks and bonds there was also over $1 million in bearer bonds. Upon removal of all the papers, on the bottom of the drawer, just lying loose, were 25 1878-S Trade Dollars! As wonderful as this seemed, there was a dilemma. Were the coins "financial " and thus property of the university, or were they personal and thus the property of "Jim." After long discussions with the attorneys, it was decided that the coins would be divided equally - with 13 coins going to the university and the remaining 12 coins to "Jim."
The university immediately sold their coins to a local coin dealer. This dealer in turn sold them to a major west coast firm who submitted them to PCGS who in turn graded them mostly MS-65, with a few MS-64's and (2) MS-66. Point of fact: every known 1878-S Trade Dollar grading MS-65 or higher (at the time of this writing) can be traced back to this hoard of 25 coins. The only exception being the lone MS-67, which, as justice would have it, is also included in this incredible sale!
And Tradedollarnut -- that 1878-S T$1 is mind blowing!
Much of Pompeii was left behind intact, including the coins. "Villa Pisanella", a winery, was owned by a banker from Pompeii named Lucius Caecilius Iucundus. He was extremely wealthy based on the wine jar filled with his gold coins which was found during excavations in 1895.
While Roman gold is among the purest ever seen, the coins were still alloyed with small amounts of silver. Due to the extensive ash and sulphuric conditions, some of the gold coins developed toning, this coin being one of the most dramatically toned of the group.
Since being uncovered in 1895, this coin has been a part of several of the most important collections of Roman coins, and now humbly resides with me. Knowing where it's been for about 2,000 years makes it easily one of my favorite coins.
My other favorite pedigree is my Roman bronze "Aes Grave" which was owned by President John Quincy Adams. His collection of ancient coins became part of the Massachusetts Historical Society and was sold in 1971 by Stacks. This coin is massive - weight 139 grams and 50mm in diameter. I can only imagine how his knowledge and collection of Roman history helped shape our country today.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
Ancient Rome (Imperial): silver denarius of Tiberius, ca. 14-37 AD: the biblical "Tribute Penny"
Obverse- TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS, laureate head right.
Reverse- PONTIF MAXIM, Livia as Pax, seated right on throne with ornate legs, single line below, holding long scepter and olive branch.
RIC 30, 18 mm, 3.77 g. NGC Choice Fine (Strike 4/5, Surface 3/5), Ex-Michael Swoveland ("Aethelred"), through private trreaty on Collectors Universe, January 2011. Purchased raw.
For a Tiberius* type coin, one simply must have the "Tribute Penny"* of biblical fame, right? Many believe that the Tiberius denarii, which circulated during the life, ministry, and crucifixion of Christ, were the coin of the legend. So they're eternally popular and historically important.
NGC cert verification page
This coin is part of my "Eclectic Box of 20" collection.
It was originally part of my "Twelve Caesars" Roman collection.
And they sent unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him.Mark 12:13-17, King James Version
As of early 2010, when I dusted this story off and reposted it on the Internet, this remains my oldest coin found so far.
(2011 UPDATE: not anymore! In April, 2011, I found a Roman coin from circa 395 AD on a colonial site here!)
That's only part of the reason it's my favorite coin find, however.
When I found this piece in the fall of 1998, Hurricane Earl was blowin' across the Florida panhandle to hit us from the landward side. I was out at a site in the woods that had been cleared (bush-mowed but not root-raked), and the wind was blowin' 40-50 MPH gusts, but there wasn't much rain. I wasn't getting many signals at all, and the few I did get were old iron nails. I was using a Fisher 1280-X underwater detector, which worked very well as a dry-land relic hunting machine. I was digging just about every signal.
One signal, near a big tree, was "hotter" than the rest, and I had to whack through a web of small roots to get into the soil. From a few inches down, a part of the neck of a very old black glass bottle came up, which was encouraging. Then, a a few more inches down, almost a foot deep overall, there was a little squarish piece of copper. I didn't recognize it as a coin, at first. I thought it was a seal of some sort.
My examination of the find was cut short when some men strolled into the clearing, asking if it was my van parked out by the road. I told them yes. They asked me to move it so they could clear the big tree that had fallen across the road, right in front of it! Off in my own little treasure-seeking world, I had been completely oblivious to things like dying hurricanes and wind and fallen trees! The hardwired headphones on that Fisher were very snug and shut out a lot of ambient noise.
A few months later, I met Bill Hendrick of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who was doing a story about the sinking of two tankers off our island by the German submarine U-123, in 1942. When my hobby came up in conversation, he expressed an interest in doing a little sidebar piece about my coin and its connection to the lost Santo Domingo de Asajo mission. (By this time I had identified the coin and sort of figured out the historical connection. A lot of the other details were filled in by Dr. John Worth, the scholar who Mr. Hendrick contacted for the story).
When the story ran in the paper, it was picked up by the AP and run in various places around the country. As a matter of fact, somebody I don't even know clipped it and submitted it to Western and Eastern Treasures magazine, where it ran under the "Treasure In The News" column- I was surprised to read about my own find there!
Aside from its historical and archaeological significance, this coin has a very important sentimental value to me, as well. I was showing it and the newspaper clipping off at work, and struck up a conversation with a nice lady there.
We struck up a friendship, and were married in October of 1999. (She's not really that interested in coins, but at least this one served as that initial conversational icebreaker.)
So you can see why this coin is special to me on so many different levels. Even if I one day get to travel up north or overseas, and find an older coin, or am lucky enough to find a gold coin one day, this one will always be "THE" coin.
Transcript of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article from February 25, 1999:
SPANISH COIN GIVES CLUE TO STATE'S PAST
St. Simons Island-- Robertson Shinnick has found a tiny piece of Georgia's past-- lost for more than 300 years. Searching the ground on this resort isle with a metal detector last fall, the 33-year-old coin collector dug a foot into the black soil and found an odd-shaped coin. "I had in my hand a small, squarish piece of copper with a strange design on it," Shinnick said. "I knew the Spanish colonial mints struck millions of silver coins, but this was obviously copper. "It was a mystery until I identified the design as the monogram of Philip IV of Spain, who reigned from 1621 to 1665." Turns out the four-maraved coin, a low-value sort of penny of its era, had been hand-forged in Spain about 1658. It isn't particularly dear to collectors-- it's worth about $65-- but it's valuable to Georgia historians. John Worth, director of programs for the Calhoun-based Coosawattee Foundation and one of the top experts on 17th century Spanish missions along the Georgia coast, calls the coin "quite a find." He says Shinnick's coin gives a clue about the long-lost mission of Santo Domingo de Asajo, built in 1595 to convert Native Americans to Christianity. It was destroyed by English-backed slave traders in 1661, rebuilt a year later, then burned by British pirates in 1684. "There were about 30 men, women and children, and friars, but no soldiers. A small garrison of soldiers was located on nearby St. Catherine's Island," Worth says. Other traces of the early Spanish period, such as olive jars and pottery shards, have been found on St. Simons, says Worth, who's done extensive studies on the island. But coins such as the one Shinnick found are rare along the Georgia coast. Shinnick's may be the first found on St. Simons. "Its significance is in our common state heritage," Worth says. "It is a bit of actual, concrete evidence of the Spanish missions, right here in Georgia." Shinnick, a bellman at the King and Prince Resort, found the coin on private land at Hampton Point, where million-dollar mansions are being built. One side of the time-blackened coin shows the royal monogram of Philip IV and a Roman numeral for the denomination. The other shows the letters "RX" _ for "rex," or "king," according to Worth. "Because the friars couldn't touch coins, my best guess is it was dropped by a passing soldier or an Indian," says Worth, whose Coosawattee Foundation aims to protect former Native American sites in the Southeast. "It's just a good history lesson from an era that's been lost."
~RWS
INDEX OF DIG STORIES
San Francisco Mints in 1949 to pay soldiers of Nationalist China fighting the Communists.
Mexico 1898 Peso struck in 1949
This led to a very interesting numismatic research project which I have described on my website.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television