Lost or misplaced coins

MWallace

What is the most valuable coin that you have lost or misplaced and have yet to find?

Jinx86

I know I have a 1983 proof set with a no S dime laying around somewhere. I haven't sold any sets since I bought it so I know it's in the pile somewhere.

TopographicOceans

$179
I sold a toned Morgan on eBay, but then couldn't find it anywhere.
The only thing I could think of is I sold it earlier and it didn't get updated???

Zoins

Just a nice Columbian Exposition SCHD - Eglit 245.

AMRC

I lost a top-pop $9,000 coin once for about 8 months. It finally "slid" out from under my driver seat one day. That was after COUNTLESS trips to the car wash over that time.

ms70

Someone here accidentally threw a $4 Stella in the garbage, never to be seen again.

jessewvu

I hid three gold coins worth about $10,000 just before going out of town once. I forgot about them for a few months and then realized they were gone. I thought I shipped them to someone who bought some silver coins by mistake. I sent an email to approzimelty 1,000 eBay buyers asking if anyone had seen it.

Fast forward a long time, I found them hidden behind books on a bookshelf.

Coins I know I have that I can't find; 1999 wide AM cent in ms condition. I found most of the other coins I was missing when I recently moved

pennyannie

I lost a cool error Lincoln for over 4 years now. I have misplaced 10 pistols but I expect to find them

CaptHenway

Paging Fred Weinberg........

FredWeinberg

Me. Stella. Trash. Thrown Away. 1986.

MonsterCoinz

@FredWeinberg said:
Me. Stella. Trash. Thrown Away. 1986.

Just think, it's under a diaper in a landfill somewhere. Someone with a metal detector may find it in a few thousand years.

I have a green, tab toned BU Morgan that I can't seem to find anywhere. I've looked everywhere. Even inside a pillowcase.

Patch3E9

Two coins that I received as birthday presents when I was 10, an MS63 1932-P Washington and an MS63 1948-P Franklin. Both mysteriously disappeared. Not worth a lot per the market, but sentimentally, they were worth quite a bit.

ricko

I have told the story here before... of my $5 gold Indian... disappeared for three and a half years.... found it by accident, in a place I cannot imagine it being.... Should not, could not have been there... and yet, there it was. I will never figure that one out. Cheers, RickO

OldEastside

Not yet knock on wood however after friends and family visit I always seem
to have misplaced DVD's

Steve

Type2

I'll let you know when I find it.

SmallSizedGuy

I had set aside a $1 1878 8TF and an 1880-CC dollar for grading about 10 years ago. I have yet to find them.

CascadeChris

I recently lost an $800 coin, a PQ 1889o Morgan in pcgs 64, for a few weeks. I knew it had to be somewhere and after a few days of tearing things up I realized I needed to stop looking and it would find itself. Kind of like trying to remember something and when you stop thinking about it, it pops into your head. It really does work for finding this too even though that seems unrealistic. Anyway, after a couple of weeks my pillow fell behind my headboard and boom, there was the coin. I don't even remember having it anywhere near my bed and wouldn't have looked there unless as a last resort like checking the freezer for the remote but hey, at least she's back in the safe now.

CascadeChris

@ricko said:
I have told the story here before... of my $5 gold Indian... disappeared for three and a half years.... found it by accident, in a place I cannot imagine it being.... Should not, could not have been there... and yet, there it was. I will never figure that one out. Cheers, RickO

Rick, did she have some nice toning to her after all that time?

ricko

@CascadeChris.....no...but she should have...I found it in a box of ammunition.... Cheers, RickO

1630Boston

I 'lost' a 1864-L AU that I was going to get certified, I had three but when I went to submit I could only find 2.
Bought in the early 70"s...not a real dollar loss but still very frustrating.

CaptHenway

When I was at ANACS we once had a package come in with a lot of postage on it, and when the two people opening mail that day opened it they found a padded mailer inside but no coin. The submission form listed some rarity (can't remember what it was now) and the declared value was somewhere in the $45-50K range. They immediately called the Office Manager over, and she called me, and we ransacked the area including the trash looking for the coin. Nothing.

I called the submitter and asked if perhaps he had accidentally sent an empty mailer and still had the coin, as happened with other people a few times. He said no. We later found out that he had then immediately gone down to his local post office and filed a claim for the loss.

We then called the postal inspector's office and they sent over an agent. He interviewed the two people opening mail and the Office Manage and I, and we described to him our careful procedure for opening mail. He believed us.

The next day two postal inspectors showed up at the submittor's home with a warrant, and asked to see the area where he had packaged the coin. It was at a work desk in the submittor's bedroom. As a postal inspector later told me, one of them searched the desk while the other kept an eye on the submittor. After a few minutes he began to wander over towards the bed, and suddenly "discovered" the coin on the floor under the bed. He said that his son must have been in the room as he was packaging the coin. The inspectors got a statement from him confirming that the coin was not lost and left.

We also found out that when the postal inspectors asked his for some documentation of the value of the lost coin, he had shown them an ad for a similar coin of a similar value, that he had ordered as a replacement coin right after filing the postal claim for the lost coin! Didn't even wait to see if it would turn up. Obviously he knew that it would not.

TD

CascadeChris

@CaptHenway said:
When I was at ANACS we once had a package come in with a lot of postage on it, and when the two people opening mail that day opened it they found a padded mailer inside but no coin. The submission form listed some rarity (can't remember what it was now) and the declared value was somewhere in the $45-50K range. They immediately called the Office Manager over, and she called me, and we ransacked the area including the trash looking for the coin. Nothing.

I called the submitter and asked if perhaps he had accidentally sent an empty mailer and still had the coin, as happened with other people a few times. He said no. We later found out that he had then immediately gone down to his local post office and filed a claim for the loss.

We then called the postal inspector's office and they sent over an agent. He interviewed the two people opening mail and the Office Manage and I, and we described to him our careful procedure for opening mail. He believed us.

The next day two postal inspectors showed up at the submittor's home with a warrant, and asked to see the area where he had packaged the coin. It was at a work desk in the submittor's bedroom. As a postal inspector later told me, one of them searched the desk while the other kept an eye on the submittor. After a few minutes he began to wander over towards the bed, and suddenly "discovered" the coin on the floor under the bed. He said that his son must have been in the room as he was packaging the coin. The inspectors got a statement from him confirming that the coin was not lost and left.

We also found out that when the postal inspectors asked his for some documentation of the value of the lost coin, he had shown them an ad for a similar coin of a similar value, that he had ordered as a replacement coin right after filing the postal claim for the lost coin! Didn't even wait to see if it would turn up. Obviously he knew that it would not.

TD

Wow. Seems like he was pretty confident he'd get a payout. I wonder if he used that tactic elsewhere previously with success. So did you guys revoke his ability to submit after that?

golden

I hid a raw $5 Indian in the house a few years ago and still have not found it.

Mitchell

Misplaced a GSA softpack containing a 1878-CC. Nothing great but the price was right.
It disappeared out of my pack at a show; my guess is that it wormed out and fell out at a bourse table.

1630Boston

@RickO,
Do you believe in 'poltergeists' , ?
They can be very mischievous. Hiding things and then making them reappear in open, common, obvious places.
Dealt with therm a lot as a child.

@ricko Edited to ad : Closed ammo container might be an obvious place for some. at least you found it.

ricko

@1630Boston...No, I do not believe in poltergeists, ghosts, goblins, zombies, vampires or werewolves.... Cheers, RickO

CascadeChris

@ricko said:
@1630Boston...No, I do not believe in poltergeists, ghosts, goblins, zombies, vampires or werewolves.... Cheers, RickO

Yes but packrats do exist and coins are shiny

DNADave

I had a Danny Kaye regency slab once that I haven't seen for a couple of years. I don't remember selling it, but I can't find it.

I was throwing away an old briefcase once and looked in it to make sure it was empty. I found a 1/2 ounce and a 1/4 ounce gold eagle that I have no idea when or where I bought them.

....must be getting old.

ricko

Yep... Packrats do exist.... However, this was in a 2x2 and found inside a closed ammo container.... Cheers, RickO

mustangmanbob

I was on the other end of the lost coin.

I related the story earlier, so I will condense it. I bought a 5 gallon bucket of automotive hardware at a swap meet, and a year or so later, I dumped it out to send the bolts out for chemical strip and plating, and inside was a canvas bank bag, with about $250 to $300 face value silver coins. Sadly, there were about 10 more buckets at the swap meet, and I always wondered what was in the other ones, as the person who was selling them had gotten them at an estate sale.

Restored automotive bolts, with unique lengths, thread counts, head markings, etc. can bring, relatively speaking, a lot of money.

SoCalBigMark

logger7

I had a $20 Liberty gold piece I had left in a car accidentally that I gave to a friend; fortunately his nephew was honest, let me know and returned the coin to me.

seanq

The two that haunt me are a proof 1938 Jefferson nickel that I'd cherrypicked and purchased as BU, and a low grade but very rare 1864 two cent piece with a dramatic repunched date. I still hold out hope that I'll find them in the bottom of a box somewhere.

Sean Reynolds

CaptHenway

Once had a lady come into the coin shop with her mother's needle box from her sewing kit, which had a common $2-1/2 Liberty in it. I gave her a price for that, then asked if I could see the needle box. I hefted it, then shook it and felt something move. I asked her permission to pull up the lining of the box, which she gave, and I found a $5 Liberty under the lining.

CaptHenway

Another time in Chicago I had two young Hispanic men come in. They had been working in a scrapyard breaking things down so they could get more metal in a truck headed to a blast furnace over in Indiana, and inside the shell of a washing machine they found 30 or so gold coins wrapped in tin foil and taped to the inside of the washing machine,

bkzoopapa

Just before I started working at Rarcoa in 1968, one of the owners, Ben Dreiske was at the Metropolitan NY show and lost an 1841 "Princess" quarter eagle, probably in the garbage by the backup table. We had photos of it and checked everyone that appeared for sale and it has never shown up

logger7

Last night I was examining a Seated half dime at my sister's and turned the sofa upside down trying to find it, she told her friends I was going nuts....I found the coin; it would be nuts not to try to find it.

SoCalBigMark

Found it!

MICHAELDIXON

I lost a 1955 DDO in XF about 10 years ago. It was in a 2x2 flip and all I can think of is that, without looking, I pulled it out and threw it into a bag of wheat cents that went to auction.

WillieBoyd2

I managed to lose a GSA Carson City silver dollar which I bought during the sales of the early 1970's.

I noticed the coin missing in the early 1980's although I still have the GSA certificates and cardboard box.

I don't know the date of the coin as the coin was one of the lower grade uncirculated ones where the certificate did not state the date.

The GSA certificates that came with the silver dollar:

GSA Certificate 1

GSA Certificate 2

1630Boston

Just thought of this.
About 4 or 5 years ago purchased some junk silver on craigslist.
Counted it at the sale but while driving tried to open the bag and coins went flying.
lost 2 Washington........never found them..............sold the car.............probably ended up in China with the car as scrap metal.
@ricko Another reason why parking lot finds help to make up the difference.

TwoSides2aCoin

1915 S $2.5 Pan-Pac gold coin.

johnny9434

@CaptHenway said:
When I was at ANACS we once had a package come in with a lot of postage on it, and when the two people opening mail that day opened it they found a padded mailer inside but no coin. The submission form listed some rarity (can't remember what it was now) and the declared value was somewhere in the $45-50K range. They immediately called the Office Manager over, and she called me, and we ransacked the area including the trash looking for the coin. Nothing.

I called the submitter and asked if perhaps he had accidentally sent an empty mailer and still had the coin, as happened with other people a few times. He said no. We later found out that he had then immediately gone down to his local post office and filed a claim for the loss.

We then called the postal inspector's office and they sent over an agent. He interviewed the two people opening mail and the Office Manage and I, and we described to him our careful procedure for opening mail. He believed us.

The next day two postal inspectors showed up at the submittor's home with a warrant, and asked to see the area where he had packaged the coin. It was at a work desk in the submittor's bedroom. As a postal inspector later told me, one of them searched the desk while the other kept an eye on the submittor. After a few minutes he began to wander over towards the bed, and suddenly "discovered" the coin on the floor under the bed. He said that his son must have been in the room as he was packaging the coin. The inspectors got a statement from him confirming that the coin was not lost and left.

We also found out that when the postal inspectors asked his for some documentation of the value of the lost coin, he had shown them an ad for a similar coin of a similar value, that he had ordered as a replacement coin right after filing the postal claim for the lost coin! Didn't even wait to see if it would turn up. Obviously he knew that it would not.

TD

amazing, what people will do for a buck

oih82w8

Back in the early 90's I bought a 1884-S Morgan that was advertised as "Brilliant Uncirculated", and from what I remember it was a really nice coin. Five military moves later I still can't find it in one of those fire resistant boxes (Sentry Safe). Knowing my luck I would be better off not knowing if it was "whizzed" or garner a "details" grade today...if I found it.

ricko

@oih82w8 ...Find it and send it to me.... I like blast white.... Cheers, RickO

northcoin

I misplaced a $20 High Relief Saint Gaudens in PCGS MS62 that I had won in an auction. Had forgotten I even had it when several year later it fell out of some papers that I had filed away.

1630Boston

That is a nice re-find.

Cougar1978

Lost an ICG 1950 MS64 FBL Franklin about 12 years ago. Completely forgot about it. Found under my desk area which is rather heavy L shaped while searching for a coin sold on ebay which I later found.

Upon finding the 1950 half memory jarred and gladly added it to inventory / online store, an $85 MV coin. The old cost sticker / code still on it an showed I had $42 in it. Still have it and won't take less my asking price.

jwitten

The post office lost these two beauties. Monetarily about $500, but toning wise, not replaceable.

1630Boston

@jwitten
When did they lose them and did you have any recourse. Just curious.

planonit

@FredWeinberg said:
Me. Stella. Trash. Thrown Away. 1986.

Ok I guess I'll be the one. I've been on here a few years but this story is all news to me and I must know the story here.