Well... FWIW, I wasn't taken in by any of those scams... I don't make that kind of money, and I'm not THAT old; however, I was scammed as a kid by the $1 offer for 5 collector coins in the back of Coin World... circa 1970. Me and my buddy sent in our dollars, and waited... and waited... and waited... My friend's mom started letter writing and about 1 year later, he got his coins... a couple of wheat cents and buffalo nickels. I think there was one IHC in the group. I just got bitter... ;-) ... lol...
Collecting: Dansco 7070; Middle Date Large Cents (VF-AU); Box of 20;
A book titled "the day they shook the plum tree" Is about Col Green and Hetty is mentioned. I read it and I have a copy. It's a fun read.
I don't think he was spoiled until she died, as a matter of fact he had a limp all his life because his Mother Hetty wouldn't pay to have a broken leg he suffered set properly.
This is the part of numismatics that gets lost in the auctions, pricing and promoting.
I don't agree with this one. Littleton charges a lot of money for their coins, no doubt. But if you order a 'fine' 1908 S Indian cent, that's what you will get. You may pay too much money, but you get what is advertised. They've been responsible for bringing multiple thousands of collectors into the hobby.
Paid 20.97 for the book in 1997 according to my amazon receipt. 1990s was some hey day years for me. Can't say books got cheaper though, I just bought Rea Early quarters 90$
On Page 254 Walter Breen complete encyclopedia book Hetty Green is mentioned. Also, with regard to other holdings of the Col. she is mentioned on pages 299, 376, & 682
Last week I opened six coin packets of Littleton's Uncirculated product. Franklin's, Washington's, and SE's. Every coin was very under graded. Two of the Uncirculated SE graded MS-69 and MS-70. I have no idea what the people paid for them.
.......please remember that one man's
least favorite 'errors' that are deliberately
manufactured at the Mint and snuck out
are another man's 1913 Liberty Nickels.
Retired Collector & Dealer in Major Mint Error Coins & Currency since the 1960's.Co-Author of Whitman's "100 Greatest U.S. Mint Error Coins", and the Error Coin Encyclopedia, Vols., III & IV. Retired Authenticator for Major Mint Errors for PCGS. A 50+ Year PNG Member.A full-time numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022.
In absolute dollars lost I say legislating that the U.S.Mint sell special collectables to public has probably cost more money than all other scams combined....................
1 scam of all time has to be the US mint and Congress foisting pennies on us since 1974 when the price of copper made mintage uneconomical. Rather than converting to aluminum as they spent millions of dollars to tool up for production (as well as more millions to take existing ones away from legitimate owners) they just kept minting them when copper prices came down. They performed accounting tricks like laying the costs of production on other denominations and kept minting them. When the tricks weren't enough they made them out of toxic zinc instead.
Hundreds of billions of these have been produced since 1974 and the losses involve not only the manpower in producing and handling them but that the US economy has to wear them like an albatross; a stinking albatross that prevents the dollar coin from circulating. If it weren't for this boondoggle Congress could have created myriad other boondoggles. They have proven there are billions of ways to waste money in little dribs and drabs and a trillion here and a trillion there. It all adds up.
edited to add I have no idea why the first paragraph is huge or how to fix it but then there's lots of stuff I have no idea about the new software
The "Markdown" system used to format text in this forum will interpret special characters like # * and - in possibly unexpected ways. So if you see a character that you typed but causes crazy formatting effects, you can prevent this by putting a blackslash \ in front of it.
Certain multi-page advertisers in "Coin World," for example, selling raw sliders and cleaned coins as "choice BU." Bought a few from them while I learned things here and elsewhere (thank you Scott Travers). Made an approx 3000 dollar purchase from them and on exam of the coins realized they all had problems or were overgraded. Noting that they were based here in Richmond I drove to their strip mall storefront (behind which was a HUGE operation as far as Icould tell) and demanded a full refund, which I received. Not naming names but rhymes with "Tall Stems."
You should have been stubborn and demanded replacements! I had a customer years ago that bought a Grant 2x2 advertised as BU for AU money. It took 3 or 4 returns but he finally ended up with one that graded 62! At the time that was huge!
@kaz said:
Certain multi-page advertisers in "Coin World," for example, selling raw sliders and cleaned coins as "choice BU." Bought a few from them while I learned things here and elsewhere (thank you Scott Travers). Made an approx 3000 dollar purchase from them and on exam of the coins realized they all had problems or were overgraded. Noting that they were based here in Richmond I drove to their strip mall storefront (behind which was a HUGE operation as far as Icould tell) and demanded a full refund, which I received. Not naming names but rhymes with "Tall Stems."
@Coinosaurus said:
I put the 1913 nickels up there. Deliberate scam all the way.
Also, the late 70s boiler room operations that hawked gold over the telephone and promised to "store" it for you.
As I have posted before, if I ever owned a 1913 Liberty Nickel, I'd sell it quickly so that I could buy some real coins.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
@BuffaloIronTail said:
As far as scams go........the gold plated V Nickel scam is one of my favorites. The Mint took a real embarrassing slap in the face on that one.
Wonder why that coin 1883 nickel did not put cents on from the begining since it was the first year of issue. Guess they did figure anybodty gold plating of them . Guess their was not many newspaper articles or such on a new coin. Has anybody done research and found gold planting to be reason for change?
Comments
Well... FWIW, I wasn't taken in by any of those scams... I don't make that kind of money, and I'm not THAT old; however, I was scammed as a kid by the $1 offer for 5 collector coins in the back of Coin World... circa 1970. Me and my buddy sent in our dollars, and waited... and waited... and waited... My friend's mom started letter writing and about 1 year later, he got his coins... a couple of wheat cents and buffalo nickels. I think there was one IHC in the group. I just got bitter... ;-) ... lol...
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
A book titled "the day they shook the plum tree" Is about Col Green and Hetty is mentioned. I read it and I have a copy. It's a fun read.
I don't think he was spoiled until she died, as a matter of fact he had a limp all his life because his Mother Hetty wouldn't pay to have a broken leg he suffered set properly.
This is the part of numismatics that gets lost in the auctions, pricing and promoting.
I don't agree with this one. Littleton charges a lot of money for their coins, no doubt. But if you order a 'fine' 1908 S Indian cent, that's what you will get. You may pay too much money, but you get what is advertised. They've been responsible for bringing multiple thousands of collectors into the hobby.
Paid 20.97 for the book in 1997 according to my amazon receipt. 1990s was some hey day years for me. Can't say books got cheaper though, I just bought Rea Early quarters 90$
The numismatic industry of the 70's and the 80's.
On Page 254 Walter Breen complete encyclopedia book Hetty Green is mentioned. Also, with regard to other holdings of the Col. she is mentioned on pages 299, 376, & 682
Last week I opened six coin packets of Littleton's Uncirculated product. Franklin's, Washington's, and SE's. Every coin was very under graded. Two of the Uncirculated SE graded MS-69 and MS-70. I have no idea what the people paid for them.
Racketeer Nickels is my favorite.
My least favorite is "errors" deliberately manufactured at the mint and snuck out.
rainbowroosie April 1, 2003
.......please remember that one man's
least favorite 'errors' that are deliberately
manufactured at the Mint and snuck out
are another man's 1913 Liberty Nickels.
In absolute dollars lost I say legislating that the U.S.Mint sell special collectables to public has probably cost more money than all other scams combined....................
1 scam of all time has to be the US mint and Congress foisting pennies on us since 1974 when the price of copper made mintage uneconomical. Rather than converting to aluminum as they spent millions of dollars to tool up for production (as well as more millions to take existing ones away from legitimate owners) they just kept minting them when copper prices came down. They performed accounting tricks like laying the costs of production on other denominations and kept minting them. When the tricks weren't enough they made them out of toxic zinc instead.
Hundreds of billions of these have been produced since 1974 and the losses involve not only the manpower in producing and handling them but that the US economy has to wear them like an albatross; a stinking albatross that prevents the dollar coin from circulating. If it weren't for this boondoggle Congress could have created myriad other boondoggles. They have proven there are billions of ways to waste money in little dribs and drabs and a trillion here and a trillion there. It all adds up.
edited to add I have no idea why the first paragraph is huge or how to fix it but then there's lots of stuff I have no idea about the new software
Get rid of the hashtag next to the number 1 to shrink it.
eBay ID-bruceshort978
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The "Markdown" system used to format text in this forum will interpret special characters like # * and - in possibly unexpected ways. So if you see a character that you typed but causes crazy formatting effects, you can prevent this by putting a blackslash \ in front of it.
So
#1 text
yields
1 text
but
\#1 text
yields
#1 text
I put the 1913 nickels up there. Deliberate scam all the way.
Also, the late 70s boiler room operations that hawked gold over the telephone and promised to "store" it for you.
does the name
North Shore
ring a bell?
Certain multi-page advertisers in "Coin World," for example, selling raw sliders and cleaned coins as "choice BU." Bought a few from them while I learned things here and elsewhere (thank you Scott Travers). Made an approx 3000 dollar purchase from them and on exam of the coins realized they all had problems or were overgraded. Noting that they were based here in Richmond I drove to their strip mall storefront (behind which was a HUGE operation as far as Icould tell) and demanded a full refund, which I received. Not naming names but rhymes with "Tall Stems."
You should have been stubborn and demanded replacements! I had a customer years ago that bought a Grant 2x2 advertised as BU for AU money. It took 3 or 4 returns but he finally ended up with one that graded 62! At the time that was huge!
As I have posted before, if I ever owned a 1913 Liberty Nickel, I'd sell it quickly so that I could buy some real coins.
Wonder why that coin 1883 nickel did not put cents on from the begining since it was the first year of issue. Guess they did figure anybodty gold plating of them . Guess their was not many newspaper articles or such on a new coin. Has anybody done research and found gold planting to be reason for change?
Franklin MinT