Here is my Flowing Hair Dollar - please tell me what you think
PutTogether
Posts: 2,141 ✭✭✭
Hello everyone.
I've been away from the forums for quite a while, but have been lurking again the last few days. Hard to imagine - but I sort of forgot how deep the knowledge here really ran. I continue to be blown away by how much of some of you guys know, and how readily you share it.
Anyway, here is a picture of a Flowing Hair dollar I own. (1795 - 3 leaves)
How I got it is kind of a neat story. My grandfather was helping his father move sometime in the late 60s. They finished dragging a dresser out to a curb when my grandpa heard a 'ring'. This coin fell from from the back of the top drawer (where it was taped) onto the sidewalk. Grandpa picked it up - Great grandpa said something along the lines of "oh, I forgot about that" and told told him to keep it. Grandpa threw it in his pocket and finished with the move. When he got home, he tucked it into a shoebox of keepsake stuff around the house, and there it sat for about 30 years.
In the late 90's, my grandparents both retired, and were moving to Vegas. You can accumulate a lot of stuff being in one house for 40 years, and when going through it all, he rediscovered the dollar. He took it to somewhere local to him in LA who offered him $500. He suspected that was fishy, held on to it, packed it up with the rest of the stuff and moved.
Once settled in Vegas, he decided to dig into the matter again, and brought it to Sahara coin to get an idea of value. They told him about third party grading services, and helped him submit it to ANACS.
After learning it was worth more than a few hundred bucks, he decided he didn't want to sell it after all, and instead figured he'd keep it stashed away for a rainy day (though this time in a proper safe deposit box). He was never really IN to coins but he did like the idea of a small pretty thing having significant cash value The rainy day never came.
He died almost 12 years ago, and still had the coin tucked away in his safe deposit box. What I didn't know was that a note in there saying my grandma should give it to me (if she didn't need the money).
I've now had it for several years, but I've never really had the opportunity to show it off. None of my 'real life' friends are much into coins, it's too expensive to keep laying around the house, and I don't get to go to shows or anything too often
So.....after 5 or so years in my SDB, 10 in my grandpa's, 30 in a shoebox, and god knows how long taped to a dresser drawer......here it is. I don't know if I'll keep it until I die, but it is kind of neat to remember the story of how a coin minted when Washington was president fell onto a sidewalk in the 1960s and was almost forgotten about for another 40 years.
Thanks for listening.
What do you think it's proper grade is? What do you think the holder says? Should I ever bother sending it to PCGS instead? (the perfect little circle above the '9' is a spot on the plastic)
I've been away from the forums for quite a while, but have been lurking again the last few days. Hard to imagine - but I sort of forgot how deep the knowledge here really ran. I continue to be blown away by how much of some of you guys know, and how readily you share it.
Anyway, here is a picture of a Flowing Hair dollar I own. (1795 - 3 leaves)
How I got it is kind of a neat story. My grandfather was helping his father move sometime in the late 60s. They finished dragging a dresser out to a curb when my grandpa heard a 'ring'. This coin fell from from the back of the top drawer (where it was taped) onto the sidewalk. Grandpa picked it up - Great grandpa said something along the lines of "oh, I forgot about that" and told told him to keep it. Grandpa threw it in his pocket and finished with the move. When he got home, he tucked it into a shoebox of keepsake stuff around the house, and there it sat for about 30 years.
In the late 90's, my grandparents both retired, and were moving to Vegas. You can accumulate a lot of stuff being in one house for 40 years, and when going through it all, he rediscovered the dollar. He took it to somewhere local to him in LA who offered him $500. He suspected that was fishy, held on to it, packed it up with the rest of the stuff and moved.
Once settled in Vegas, he decided to dig into the matter again, and brought it to Sahara coin to get an idea of value. They told him about third party grading services, and helped him submit it to ANACS.
After learning it was worth more than a few hundred bucks, he decided he didn't want to sell it after all, and instead figured he'd keep it stashed away for a rainy day (though this time in a proper safe deposit box). He was never really IN to coins but he did like the idea of a small pretty thing having significant cash value The rainy day never came.
He died almost 12 years ago, and still had the coin tucked away in his safe deposit box. What I didn't know was that a note in there saying my grandma should give it to me (if she didn't need the money).
I've now had it for several years, but I've never really had the opportunity to show it off. None of my 'real life' friends are much into coins, it's too expensive to keep laying around the house, and I don't get to go to shows or anything too often
So.....after 5 or so years in my SDB, 10 in my grandpa's, 30 in a shoebox, and god knows how long taped to a dresser drawer......here it is. I don't know if I'll keep it until I die, but it is kind of neat to remember the story of how a coin minted when Washington was president fell onto a sidewalk in the 1960s and was almost forgotten about for another 40 years.
Thanks for listening.
What do you think it's proper grade is? What do you think the holder says? Should I ever bother sending it to PCGS instead? (the perfect little circle above the '9' is a spot on the plastic)
0
Comments
Doesn't look like its trip to the sidewalk hurt it any...I'd say its F15 or VF20 at PCGS.
It's really hard to gauge issues such as cleaning from most of our pictures, but it looks
To me like it has a decent chance for straight grading
The dollar has that circ-cam look, IMO.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
I agree with bolivarshagnasty---F 15 shot at VF 20.
The coin also has GREAT sentimental value.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
I have a "family coin" with a similar story. Unfortunately, it's a 1921 Morgan in VF.
Just been crushed with stuff...
siliconvalleycoins.com
I'd give it a VF20.
It's something you definitely want to keep in the family.
Coingrats!
PCGS Registries
Box of 20
SeaEagleCoins: 11/14/54-4/5/12. Miss you Larry!
I value the coin this way: 1% grade, 99% sentimental significance. The grade on the holder isn't important.
If you're not itching to sell it, don't bother with having it re-graded. The ANACS holder is protecting it perfectly well. Someday if you want to part with it, it will be simple to have it regraded according to the prevailing opinion of whatever the standards are at that point.
I would also type up the story and keep a copy of it with the coin. You never know what might happen and your heirs will appreciate it long after you're gone.
I like this coin.
+1
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
'dude
I have had many of those on several watch lists but never pulled the trigger.
Mike
Thanks for sharing
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
bob
Thanks for sharing the family history and this sweet coin.
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
I love a great story----thanks for sharing.
The coin also has GREAT sentimental value.
+1
Very nice coin.
I've got no plans of it going anywhere. I sold a 2 leaves version a while back, so this is the last one I have. Writing the story down and keeping it with the coin is a great idea - thank you for that. My daughter never met my grandfather - so if she ends up interested in such things it will be cool to have the story. Maybe I'll find a picture of him and his father to keep with it to. Something for her to have from two guys she never had the chance to meet. OR she can use it if she needs the money - either way is fine with me.
Funny tangent to the story: I was very close with my grandpa, and while he was never really into coins, when I was young he would occasionally shuttle me back and forth to the local coin shop so I could window-shop. Neither one of us ever knew that his father was apparently a coin collector. Other than that one dollar falling out of a dresser, my grandpa had no memory go his dad ever having any coins around. He died about 5 years before my grandpa did, and left behind a pretty neat box of assorted circulated stuff. Grandpa saved it for me and a lot of it still sits in my 7070.
Funny how things happen.
Pete
Louis Armstrong
Please visit my website Millcitynumismatics.com
You should hold onto it for as long as you can!
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
U.S. Type Set
Great story too!
My YouTube Channel
Get it in PCGS plastic.
These kind of threads are my favorites.