Anyone here who has a torrid story or two of behind-the-scenes within our hobby?
abcde12345
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Maybe a dealer or even a former grader. Someone who was in it professionally that has "seen it all" and wouldn't mind sharing a story that may have even surprised you as it was unfolding. If not, I understand.
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I have to say, abcdefgh9876654, this would be a great topic. Maybe the best ever. You got my attention. But......it will never happen. Not here at least. Still....it does have potential.
A saw Dave Wnuck double dip in the salsa one time at a Heritage auction.
m
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......
there was a pair of ultra rarities. one coin was unique. They had been raw forever. This was about 15+ years ago. One of the services refused to grade them. the other said, these coins needed a little help. they sent over one of their top graders with nail polish to remove some lacquer. It worked. coins got graded. Of course fast forward, the other service that would not grade them-upgraded them a few years ago.
too tired to do better then that story
You too!
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Oh, the humanity of it all.
Heh. Even better, the service that later upgraded that pair stated emphatically that ‘those coins are not proofs’.
I've got nothing...I'm a total nobody. I just want to be able to find this thread by looking at my made posts.
@Insider2 shares some cool stories
Cant wait to read these
I keep swatting my screen every time you post.
BHNC #203
Isn't this similar to 'Why Coin Dealers Drink' threads?? I love those threads, have not seen one in a while....Cheers, RickO
Well, I was at the coin show at the old Jack Tar hotel in San Francisco.
I noticed one table with curtains on 3 sides. There seemed to be a lot of activity at the table.
Lots of onlookers.
More "on the way" from adjacent aisles.
So, I thought I should ...check it out.
Wandered over to that table and, wedging myself into the seething, sweaty mass of coin dealers and sundry types of "hangers on" I finally got to the front of the mob.
And, lo and behold, in that booth was a buxom lady who was vigorously
I am assuming it was nail polish remover? (Acetone)
We all have stories and to tell the truth, I love to hear the gossip. I've even asked folks to write some stories down for numismatic history. Imagine the stories a Harry Forman, Ruth Ann Bretell, Roger Bryant, John Love, Lewis Revels, etc. could tell. Every longtime dealer could fill this thread, but most stories are shared at show tables or over drinks.
My lips are sealed and will remain that way. So I'll share one about myself. I never bought any key or highly counterfeited coins. That's probably why, except for this one instance, AFAIK I've never bought a counterfeit.
I managed a coin shop for a few years, manage is the wrong word as I didn't do the books, just bought and sold coins and ran the store. While at a small coin show, a collector came to the table with a complete Lincoln collection in the blue folders. He wanted to sell the set so I put a glass on the keys and made an offer which he took. He asked how I knew the coins were authentic and I told him that I was a professional authenticator who had worked at ANACS when it was in DC. All the keys were high grade and beautiful. The 14-D was a chocolate brown AU+!
At the shop on Monday, I started to remove the coins, conserve them and put them in 2X2's for sale. As soon as I looked at the 14-D my gut told me it was a fake. I stuck it under the scope and sure enough, it was an extremely deceptive counterfeit I had never seen before. Yikes, pride took a big fall!
It would be an even better story if the seller had known the coin was bad and he let me boast about the great job we did spotting fakes at ANACS.
I saw Dave Wnuck double dip in the salsa one time at a Heritage auction.
m
Sad but true....
I also tear off those tags on pillows that say, "Do not remove, under penalty of law".
I'm a rebel just for kicks, yeah.
...but not about any of the "torrid" gossip I like to hear.
Would be nice if smoeone in the know and living on borrowed time would write a book about the seedy side of the hobby/business.
I want to say that someone already did write something along that line, but it was superficial. It may have been like confessions of a coin dealer. This was decades ago if I recall.
Besides, no one should want to hurt the hobby or the business more than already going on.
Pillow tags? Did you say PILLOW TAGS?????
Now, if you were talking MATTRESS TAGS I would be impressed!
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Pillow tags are the gateway to mattress tags. Give him time. Give him time
m
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......
I can think of a couple, but they ended in total disaster.. they aren’t funny, just tragic.
If QDB would write "Scams, Scoundrels and Crooks I Have Known", to be published at his death, naming names and giving details at $1000 a copy, he could raise a lot of money for charity...but I don't think he would ever do it.
Specialist....are you referring to the coins we partnered back then? Almost forgot about this!
Any dealer that writes that book better do it after they die as I guarantee there are only a few numismatists who could pass an anal exam. That includes any one who wrote the book!
'Confessions of a Coin Dealer' by Tom Becker, printed early 1990s. I think it was printed in twelve parts in a newsletter format, then maybe later in a single volume. It had some useful advice. Nothing too sordid, and certainly nothing torrid. I can't find it now, but can't shake the feeling/recollection that it may have been printed by Bowers and Merena.
'Torrid' has a wide meaning, of course, but it has kinda been used in a more specific carnal sense in the last couple of decades. Sordid and torrid are usually different things.
Thanks! My memory is not totally wiped clean. I have the "series" in storage in TN. As I recall each "confession" was on a different color paper stock and there were between 5 to 8 issues.
If it would keep one collector from getting shanked it would be worth it, no? It could probably help more than hurt.
@BAJJERFAN said: "If it would keep one collector from getting shanked it would be worth it, no? It could probably help more than hurt."
LOL, NO!
I was raised by wolves. After being kicked out of Ms. Sophie's school for bleeding heart's and do goods, I graduated from the "Attila-the-Hun" school of personal choice and real life. Therefore, the "If it could save just one... argument makes me sick whenever its used! I'm going to take a walk to recover.
It says its "FICTION".
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My recollection is that some of the advice was moderately valuable, and I suspect that the lawyers advise that you call it 'fiction' to preclude or avoid any legal claims from those who might somehow be offended with or without reason/grounds. But IIRC, it was pretty innocuous stuff on the whole. The point was the good advice.
It was TIC, but it makes me sick too, because it can almost always be turned around to support the opposing side.
Well, I am not a coin dealer but I did rip a couple of tags off of some Beanie Babies.
Out of sheer coincidence I was cleaning out a corner of moving boxes from 8 years ago. Found a binder with Becker & Kuehnert newsletters and set it aside. All are on white stock with differing colored ink. But these are all titled "The Truth About xxxx" The are not dated but seem to be early '90's based on the other material in the binder. Typical subjects are:
Third Party Grading
Rare Coin Auctions
Rare Coin Investment
Rare Coin Dealers
Cleaning Coins
Buying Rare Coins
Lazy Investors Guide
and on and on - 18 in all
Are these the same topics as covered in "Confessions of a Coin Dealer" or something different?
I plan to digitize these so I don't have to keep the paper and will also be easier to share.
“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!
If you want to be exposed to some of the seedy underbelly of numismatics, buy Karl Moulton's book about John J Ford and the Massapequa Mint. It is also a great read.
Check out some of my 1794 Large Cents on www.coingallery.org
Whadda ya goin to do? Roll over some newbies foot?
Pete
I would think something modern about shady dealers/collectors might be in order so that one knows who to avoid. I know there's always the slander/libel angle, but if it's the truth, well. Why should they get a pass, because it might reflect badly on the hobby?
I believe that they are the same thing. MOL. Or that the newsletters are the large basis for the later book.
I know that I haven't looked at my file recently, but I bet that that your description is much better than my memory. I have like ten or twelve of them. One of them has to do with Estates.
Becker & Kuehnert is only kinda like B & M, so there goes that memory too!
@BuffaloIronTail said: "Whadda ya goin to do? Roll over some newbies foot?"
I think we all do our best to educate folks. Additionally, there is more than enough sources on the Internet for an interested person to learn more in a week than it took older folks years to discover! Why there is even a newfangled thing called a slab. So if someone is clueless and sticks his foot into the road without due diligence he/she may get it rolled over.