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Why Coin Dealers Drink--Part CCCCVIII
CaptHenway
Posts: 34,192 ✭✭✭✭✭
Series of postings from the dealer-to-dealer network today:
True call this morning: " I have some coins that are marked copy on them. Are they worth as much as the real thing? "
(Later from the same dealer)
… and as I politely try to explain that copies and reproductions
would have very little value compared to the originals, he keeps interrupting telling me that they are very valuable, he knows because he saw it on the Internet....
(Later from a different dealer)
.... had a guy come in with a $10 Confederate note
with FACSIMILE printed in the lower right hand corner.
I explain to him what that means and that the note has no
value, but if it had been real I would have paid him $20
for it. 30 minutes later a different guy comes in with
a $10 Confederate note with the lower right corner torn off.
hmmmmm....... I wonder......
(Later from a different dealer)
... years ago I had somebody call the store with a Confederate note. I went through the usual questions, including asking if it had the word FACSIMILE in the lower left border of the reverse. It did. I explained what that meant and told him it had no value.
Half an hour later a guy with the same voice comes in with the same
denomination note with the area where the word FACSIMILE was torn off......
True call this morning: " I have some coins that are marked copy on them. Are they worth as much as the real thing? "
(Later from the same dealer)
… and as I politely try to explain that copies and reproductions
would have very little value compared to the originals, he keeps interrupting telling me that they are very valuable, he knows because he saw it on the Internet....
(Later from a different dealer)
.... had a guy come in with a $10 Confederate note
with FACSIMILE printed in the lower right hand corner.
I explain to him what that means and that the note has no
value, but if it had been real I would have paid him $20
for it. 30 minutes later a different guy comes in with
a $10 Confederate note with the lower right corner torn off.
hmmmmm....... I wonder......
(Later from a different dealer)
... years ago I had somebody call the store with a Confederate note. I went through the usual questions, including asking if it had the word FACSIMILE in the lower left border of the reverse. It did. I explained what that meant and told him it had no value.
Half an hour later a guy with the same voice comes in with the same
denomination note with the area where the word FACSIMILE was torn off......
Professional Numismatist, Retired. 55 year member ANA. Former ANA Senior Authenticator. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and ANA Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner of the PNG's 2026 Robert Friedberg Award for "The Enigmatic Lincoln Cents of 1922," Available now from Whitman or Amazon.
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Comments
Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"
<< <i>How about a $1000 gold coin? Try telling people these aren't worth much more than 25 cents or so...
Had that problem in Chicago ever since that design came out.
Unreal.
Read the whole story in "The Secret of the Good Samaritan Shilling" by Eric P. Newman. In my opinion it is one of the best pieces of numismatic scholarship ever.
<< <i>Definitely grounds for the dealer to hit the bottle.....Make mine a double IPA! >>
Steve
JH - thanks for the story - will need to read the rest.
Had a call a few years back, the man had a rare U.S. bill from the
1830's. I told him there were copies of this bill, look like they are
printed
on parchment, but the genuine ones are light colored, printed
with a greenish ink. Half hour later, he showed me the bill -- it was the
brown parchment copy, lightly colored with a green crayon. I told him he
would have to get it authenicated, gave him the phone # of one of the
services.
<< <i>A followup today:
Had a call a few years back, the man had a rare U.S. bill from the
1830's. I told him there were copies of this bill, look like they are
printed
on parchment, but the genuine ones are light colored, printed
with a greenish ink. Half hour later, he showed me the bill -- it was the
brown parchment copy, lightly colored with a green crayon. I told him he
would have to get it authenicated, gave him the phone # of one of the
services. >>
Did he stay in the lines? Too funny.....
Many successful BST transactions with dozens of board members, references on request.
http://www.coinworld.com/articles/newman-exposes-fakest-coin
*rare spelling error.
<< <i>If every collector was sharp as most of the folks on this forum, a lot less brick and mortars would be around. The sword cuts both ways. >>
<< <i>If every collector was sharp as most of the folks on this forum, a lot less brick and mortars would be around. The sword cuts both ways. >>
I can appreciate ignorance - nobody can know everything - it's the arrogance that's hard to stomach.
Sometimes I really wonder about the intelligence (and honesty) of "ordinary" people.
Check out the Southern Gold Society