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Tell the story about the coin that you lost...and later found....or never found.

CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited August 17, 2017 4:45PM in U.S. Coin Forum

I can't locate an Edison silver commem. I am sure that you guys have way better stories than that.

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Comments

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 17, 2017 4:51PM

    The worst thing that is absolutely AWOL right now is a blue plastic one row coin box that has 14 ten ounce Royal Canadian Mint silver bars in it. AWOL six or seven years, but I have a closet that hasn't been cleaned out for that long, so....

    Second worst thing that is AWOL is a 1964 red and brown British half penny that is a 'bottle cap' error. I think I saw that about five years ago. It is in a 2 x 2 kraft envelope.

    One of my friends misplaced a 1995-W American Gold Eagles/American Silver Eagle Anniversary Proof set in the box. It took almost two years before he found it. The thing went up in value the whole time it was missing, so that was okay.

    These things always turn up.

    The real trick is when you find something valuable that you forgot you owned or thought you had sold earlier. Ten days ago I found an American Gold Buffalo that I had completely forgotten about. Once I found some Russian and Russian/Polish coins dated around 1830 that I thought I had sold and regretted selling them. Surprise! I also have an 1819 British half crown, very nice, that has disappeared and reappeared several times.

    The Matrix does funny things.

  • mustangmanbobmustangmanbob Posts: 1,890 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Here is a REAL early version of a lost coin: (I hope I am not violating a rule, just people has searched a long time for lost coins)

    Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:8-10).

  • koynekwestkoynekwest Posts: 10,048 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Cherried a PR 1-O-III Lincoln. I clipped it out of the proof set still in it's pliofilm. That was 15 years ago-never found it. I have a feeling it got mixed up with newspaper and was thrown out.

  • ArizonaRareCoinsArizonaRareCoins Posts: 679 ✭✭✭✭

    When I was ~11yrs old in Flushing, NY, I was going to sleepaway camp. I decided to bury my expensive coins in the front yard. I had a $10 Indian, $2 1/2 Indian and a 1652 oak tree shilling. When I came back from camp, my parents had divorced and we had moved to Great Neck, NY. My mom had said everything from the old house had been packed-up and moved to the new house..........bye-bye coins.

  • mt_mslamt_msla Posts: 815 ✭✭✭✭

    @mustangmanbob That was good thank you I appreciated that. Hey view my website if you would please. www.kjvdaily.com

    Insert witicism here. [ xxx ]

  • northcoinnorthcoin Posts: 4,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I "lost" a high relief Saint that I had won in an auction. One day several years later I was going through some old papers in the process of discarding them when I chanced upon an envelope in which my Saint was safely hiding.

  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,427 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I had a box of British coins that I could'd find. I look high an low for it. Then I was going trough a bigger storage box, looking for some PCGS slab boxes. Low and behold there it was! I guess old age is taking over. I had forgotten I had put it there six months before.

    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 ... ?
  • WillieBoyd2WillieBoyd2 Posts: 5,034 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 30, 2018 4:17PM

    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:

    image
    GSA Certificate 1

    image
    GSA Certificate 2

    :)

    https://www.brianrxm.com
    The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
    Coins in Movies
    Coins on Television

  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,427 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @ArizonaRareCoins said:
    When I was ~11yrs old in Flushing, NY, I was going to sleepaway camp. I decided to bury my expensive coins in the front yard. I had a $10 Indian, $2 1/2 Indian and a 1652 oak tree shilling. When I came back from camp, my parents had divorced and we had moved to Great Neck, NY. My mom had said everything from the old house had been packed-up and moved to the new house..........bye-bye coins.

    Did you ever tell either parent what happened? Losing an Oak Tree Shilling is a big deal, almost no matter what the condition. I never had one those when I was young or as a teenager.

    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 ... ?
  • shorecollshorecoll Posts: 5,445 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Somewhere in my house is a low-grade 16-D Merc. Bad news...it's lost; good news... I'm reasonably certain it has gone up a grade since I lost it. It was the nicest AG in a half-roll I bought...I think half of those would slab as G now.

    ANA-LM, NBS, EAC
  • TurboSnailTurboSnail Posts: 1,668 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 18, 2017 7:16AM

    @ArizonaRareCoins said:
    When I was ~11yrs old in Flushing, NY, I was going to sleepaway camp. I decided to bury my expensive coins in the front yard. I had a $10 Indian, $2 1/2 Indian and a 1652 oak tree shilling. When I came back from camp, my parents had divorced and we had moved to Great Neck, NY. My mom had said everything from the old house had been packed-up and moved to the new house..........bye-bye coins.

    I lived in Flushing when I was a teen also. Then I started to travel and ended up in the Army. Three decades later, I came back and bought a house here. A house that costed less than 50k is now around $850 to $1 million. :s

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have told this story before... I had a 1909 $5 Indian in a 2x2... purchased at a show in Seattle. I have always thought that to be one of the truly great coin designs, and cherished that coin. Well, after a tumultuous life experience, and three domicile changes, I settled in a house here in the East. I looked for my prize Indian and it was nowhere to be found. I searched for almost three years. Then, one day, I pulled out a large container of ammunition, looking for a specific caliber, and there, in that box, was my $5 Indian. Forgot all about the ammo I was looking for, literally danced through the house with it. I have no idea how that coin could have found it's way into that box. Wife thought I had lost my mind...I really like happy endings.... :D;) Cheers, RickO

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 18, 2017 7:50AM

    OT - Those of us in flyover country just marvel over what people will pay for a house in New York or New Jersey and close in to NYC. In this Midwest city, a nice, updated 35 year old ranch, 2000 sg. ft. on a reasonable lot (the house isn't within touching arm's length of the next house) will sell at $150,000.

    Mind you, my wife won't live in a house like that, but 85% of women would be happy to be in a house like that.

    Seriously, if Franklin Roosevelt had any kind of a coin collection to speak of, why haven't the numismatists claimed him as one of our own? (Wrong thread, but I'm too lazy this AM)

  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,515 ✭✭✭✭✭

    When I go on vacation I hide coins all over the house...(sometimes outside as well). Take the good stuff out of the safe and put the crap in the safe......So, when I return I get to go looking for coins, rolls, tubes, boxes, etc. I lost a roll of Morgans (common date) a few years ago. Well, after I returned from vacation this year guess what I found! But, now I've lost a box of 5, unopened, March of Dimes sets. That should be easy to find right? Oh well.
    As mentioned before I used to carry a Morgan CC as a pocket piece. I've lost a 78cc and a 79cc on two different United Air flights. I no longer carry a Morgan pocket piece.
    bob

    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
  • silverpopsilverpop Posts: 6,590 ✭✭✭✭✭

    i lost a 1907 Japan silver 20 sen coin, found it some years later in a box i never thought of looking in

  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have been missing an 1864-L raw AU for about 5 years now, if I wasn't such a pack rat I might find it. :smile:

    Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb

    Bad transactions with : nobody to date

  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Also, lost 3 silver quarters, I had about 400 loose with me, in my car.
    The car is gone, wonder if anyone ever found them :smile:

    Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb

    Bad transactions with : nobody to date

  • stevebensteveben Posts: 4,595 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @FredWeinberg said:
    Do I have to contribute to this
    again? (Just kidding)

    wait, you lost a coin? was it an error?

    ;)

  • Insider2Insider2 Posts: 14,452 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Occasionally, I would walk my boss's dog in the evening for fun (beats owning one - see it anytime yet no food or vet bills). One December night, after walking the dog, he gave me an expensive coin that he had taken on consignment to take to the office in the morning as he was leaving town for a show.

    Around July of the next year his customer inquired about the coin and when my boss couldn't find it he asked me about it. While I remembered the coin and the night he gave it to me, I couldn't say for sure where it was but I was convinced I had brought it to the office and put it into the safe. As my honesty was never in doubt, when the coin was not found, my boss or his insurance paid off the consigner. That should have been the end of the story. But it was not.

    One cold November night almost a year later, I came over to get the dog for a walk. Guess what, after I returned with the dog and was leaving the house, I reached into my coat pocket to get my car keys and the flip with the coin was in my pocket. I had not worn that particular heavy parka since the day he gave me the coin! I pulled it out and we both just looked at each other. I was shamefully embarrassed. My boss had a huge grin on his face as the value of the coin had increased about 40% since it was "lost."

  • PRECIOUSMENTALPRECIOUSMENTAL Posts: 961 ✭✭✭✭

    tommy44, Devilish Post!!!!!!
    Made My Day.

  • ashelandasheland Posts: 22,612 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I had a friend temporarily lose an 1856 Flyer in PCGS MS62.
    He was a nervous wreck! But good news he found it on top of a cabinet shortly after. :)

  • oih82w8oih82w8 Posts: 11,867 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 19, 2017 4:57AM

    I purchased a really nice (MS, supposedly) 1884-S Morgan Dollar while I was stationed overseas, from a U.S. mail order dealer, around 1990-91. I placed that coin a few other that I had at the time in one of those lockable "fire-resistant" boxes, six military moves later and I cannot find that damn box. It's around here somewhere.

    oih82w8 = Oh I Hate To Wait _defectus patientia_aka...Dr. Defecto - Curator of RMO's

    BST transactions: dbldie55, jayPem, 78saen, UltraHighRelief, nibanny, liefgold, FallGuy, lkeigwin, mbogoman, Sandman70gt, keets, joeykoins, ianrussell (@GC), EagleEye, ThePennyLady, GRANDAM, Ilikecolor, Gluggo, okiedude, Voyageur, LJenkins11, fastfreddie, ms70, pursuitofliberty, ZoidMeister,Coin Finder, GotTheBug...
  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,515 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @FredWeinberg said:
    Short Version of my (well-known) Story:

    In June 1986, about 5-6 months after PCGS
    started (I was one of the original 31 dealers),
    I threw away in tall trash can in my vault room,
    a PCGS PROOF-65 $4 Stella.

    I know where it is - in the Simi Valley Trash Site;
    been there for 31 years.

    Fred, since you know where it is, can we just say that Fred misplaced his Stella?

    bob:)

    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
  • TurboSnailTurboSnail Posts: 1,668 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Coinstartled said:

    @ArizonaRareCoins said:
    When I was ~11yrs old in Flushing, NY, I was going to sleepaway camp. I decided to bury my expensive coins in the front yard. I had a $10 Indian, $2 1/2 Indian and a 1652 oak tree shilling. When I came back from camp, my parents had divorced and we had moved to Great Neck, NY. My mom had said everything from the old house had been packed-up and moved to the new house..........bye-bye coins.

    Recall the old address? ;)

    If it was our former first lady's (Nancy Reagan's home at Beech ave) I have dug out, nothing there.

  • FredWeinbergFredWeinberg Posts: 5,714 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It IS misplaced, but our trash was picked
    up before I knew that !!!.

    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 49+-Year PNG Member...A full numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022
  • kiyotekiyote Posts: 5,568 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Poor Fred Weinberg. Forced to relive this over and over.

    "I'll split the atom! I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!" -Gef the talking mongoose.
  • CoinstartledCoinstartled Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @CaptHenway said:
    When I was at ANACS I dropped a silver three cent piece from my desk. Looked on the floor and could not find it. Got Mike Fahey and Rick Montgomery over to help me look. No luck.

    Went home to lunch and it was driving me crazy. After I got back we looked some more. Finally found the coin in my pants cuff!!!! It had gone home and come back with me.

    Any textile toning?

  • PRECIOUSMENTALPRECIOUSMENTAL Posts: 961 ✭✭✭✭

    Fred W, you'll always win these threads.
    I couldn't imagine the feeling.....

  • MercuryMercury Posts: 1,051 ✭✭✭✭

    The only coin I have lost was a 1935-S Peace dollar that I carried as my pocket piece. I lost it one of the nights I spent sleeping in a chair next to my daughters hospital bed when she was in the hospital having her gall bladder removed. It was polished to death anyway, so not a big loss.

    Collecting Peace Dollars and Modern Crap.
  • FredWeinbergFredWeinberg Posts: 5,714 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well, it's been 21 years, and there's
    a lot of trash on top of it.

    There was a lot of trash on top of
    it after three days (weekend) before
    we figured out where it went.

    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 49+-Year PNG Member...A full numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022
  • MICHAELDIXONMICHAELDIXON Posts: 6,373 ✭✭✭✭✭

    A 1955 double die in AU that had been dipped and had a pink color. I was going to have a friend of mine who smoked tone it with cigar smoke. I was going to his apartment, called and he said he would be there. 5 minutes later I arrived and he was not there. I went home upset and threw it in the hutch in the dining room and closed the doors, never to be found. It was probably thrown into a bag of wheat cents and sold with me not realizing it was the 55/55 in the flip.

    Spring National Battlefield Coin Show is April 12-13, 2024 at the Eisenhower Hotel in Gettysburg, PA. WWW.AmericasCoinShows.com
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,282 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wow - nothing as dramatic as what's been posted.

    Had a 1875 50c piece that was my Dad's - pocket piece that I'm pretty sure is somewhere in the drivers seat of my car - just can't find it! CL65 AMG and the seat is complex - mechanic couldn't find it either......

    "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.
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 31,499 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think Mrs. Langbord has replaced Fred at the top of this list.

    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.
  • Peace_dollar88Peace_dollar88 Posts: 1,220 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I Have only been on the hunt for this one a little over a year. A Peace Dollar in an old anacs photo grade holder seems impossible to find.

  • Cougar1978Cougar1978 Posts: 7,541 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 18, 2017 4:15PM

    I lost a 1950 ICG MS64 FBL Franklin Half about 15-20 years ago. It's around an $85 coin. I found it in 2015 when looking for something else - it was under a desk extension / cabinet piece of furniture. I had even forgotten about it.

    So Cali Area - Coins & Currency
  • RonyahskiRonyahski Posts: 3,116 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I won at auction a classic gold coin for about $28k, a mint state coin, second finest known, outbidding D. Pogue for it ( which may prove to be not the smartest move, as I paid up for the coin). I had the coin in my office, on my desk, and I thought later that I put the coin in my home safe until it would make its way to the SDB.

    A couple days later, in my office, with my feet up on the desk, I moved some papers on the desk with my feet, and heard a "PLUNK" into the garbage can below. I thought something dropped into it, searched the garbage can and found nothing in it that could have caused such a noise.

    That same day, painters were painting the outside of my house, and all of the outside windows were wide open, including the office windows, where my desk was only a couple feet away.

    Another couple of days later, the coin was nowhere to be found. Not in the safe, not in my office, not in the SDB. Panic. I thought the coin was either in a landfill, or stolen by the painters. I called the county, tracing where my garbage went, picturing myself rummaging through a county landfill, only to find out that all county garbage was incinerated.

    Exactly one year later, I noticed some of my wife's jewelry boxes on top of the home safe. I saw one that was unfamiliar to me and opened it up. There was the coin. It was in a wooden presentation box as sent by the auction company, which I had no recollection it was in.

    The strange thing was that I wasn't as remorseful for thinking that I had just lost a ton of money on the coin. It was that the coin survived almost 200 years in pristine condition, I became the caretaker of it, and thought that I had managed to have the coin incinerated in a pile of garbage.

    Some refer to overgraded slabs as Coffins. I like to think of them as Happy Coins.
  • cmerlo1cmerlo1 Posts: 7,890 ✭✭✭✭✭

    When I was a kid (around 1980-ish), I found a 1972 DDO-003 cent in change. My mom paid for and helped me submit it to ANACS, and it came back with a photo certificate. I have the coin, but the certificate has been missing for 20 years now. Something tells me it's still in my house but I just don't know where. I work for ANACS now, so it's particularly important to me.

    You Suck! Awarded 6/2008- 1901-O Micro O Morgan, 8/2008- 1878 VAM-123 Morgan, 9/2022 1888-O VAM-1B3 H8 Morgan | Senior Regional Representative- ANACS Coin Grading. Posted opinions on coins are my own, and are not an official ANACS opinion.
  • ArizonaRareCoinsArizonaRareCoins Posts: 679 ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 19, 2017 12:55AM

    @Coinstartled said:

    @ArizonaRareCoins said:
    When I was ~11yrs old in Flushing, NY, I was going to sleepaway camp. I decided to bury my expensive coins in the front yard. I had a $10 Indian, $2 1/2 Indian and a 1652 oak tree shilling. When I came back from camp, my parents had divorced and we had moved to Great Neck, NY. My mom had said everything from the old house had been packed-up and moved to the new house..........bye-bye coins.

    Recall the old address? ;)

    146-15 25th rd.................got a shovel????

    My mom wasn't interested in going back for about $30 of gold and a damaged shilling.

  • northcoinnorthcoin Posts: 4,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @FredWeinberg said:
    Short Version of my (well-known) Story:

    In June 1986, about 5-6 months after PCGS
    started (I was one of the original 31 dealers),
    I threw away in tall trash can in my vault room,
    a PCGS PROOF-65 $4 Stella.

    I know where it is - in the Simi Valley Trash Site;
    been there for 31 years.

    That has to be one of the most gut wrenching stories ever posted on this board. Wish I could give you more than a like.

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It seems that lost coins are more the norm for collectors than the exception..... :'( At least some have a happy ending. Cheers, RickO

  • shorecollshorecoll Posts: 5,445 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Fred, just think, someone will eventually invent a robot that can go in and find that puppy...now whether we'll still be alive is a different question.

    ANA-LM, NBS, EAC
  • ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,759 ✭✭✭✭

    @ArizonaRareCoins said:
    When I was ~11yrs old in Flushing, NY, I was going to sleepaway camp. I decided to bury my expensive coins in the front yard. I had a $10 Indian, $2 1/2 Indian and a 1652 oak tree shilling. When I came back from camp, my parents had divorced and we had moved to Great Neck, NY. My mom had said everything from the old house had been packed-up and moved to the new house..........bye-bye coins.

    ArizonaRareCoins - Did you not try to return to that house to dig up your collection? Nobody but you would know that it's there and it would stay put for years, even decades.

    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @ArizonaRareCoins...I think we should organize a safari and go to your old house and dig up those coins...if you can remember where you buried them... and IF - a big IF - the homeowner will listen to our tale of woe and allow us to retrieve your treasures... ;) Cheers, RickO

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