Morgan Dollar and "holed" coins
oilstates2003
Posts: 493
Question from the wife that I had no answer for. Whats the main reason people put a hole in "holed" coins? Also is this something that was typically done many years ago.
Go easy now...
Jamie
Go easy now...
Jamie
It's not the amount of money you spend.... It's the enjoyment you get spending it..
Successful BST transactions with -Youngcoin15, Ajbauman, Metalsman, carew4me, SportsModerator1, Ahrensdad, bstat1020, piecesofme , bigmarty58, Smittys, tydye,DRG ,Coll3ctor, Ciccio, cajun, Swampboy,Excalibur,lordmarcovan,themaster,RedHerring, many more!!!
Successful BST transactions with -Youngcoin15, Ajbauman, Metalsman, carew4me, SportsModerator1, Ahrensdad, bstat1020, piecesofme , bigmarty58, Smittys, tydye,DRG ,Coll3ctor, Ciccio, cajun, Swampboy,Excalibur,lordmarcovan,themaster,RedHerring, many more!!!
0
Comments
Edited to add: Buttons too! (Many different reasons)
have even seem some presented that way....
inside of your pants or coat. Common form of carrying coins in many parts of the world.
bob
Back when I was a child I bought a holed large cent from my mother's African-American cleaning lady. We didn't know any better at the time, but my father was really into cleaning coins. He got out some steel wool and proceeded to scrub that piece to within in an inch of its life. Large amounts of the gold colored paint or whatever came off the piece until it was down the bare metal. A reasonable assumption was that this piece had been used as a necklace with the hole used for suspension.
This same cleaning lady had a group of four gold dollars. She told us that when she was short of money in the mid 1950s she had taken one of them to the bank to see what they would give her. She got a dollar. I will guarantee you that bank teller did not turn that coin into the U.S. Treasury for melting.
Part of her hoard of gold dollars included an 1853-D. That was first time I had ever seen a Dahlonega mint coin. I was in the 5th grade at the time and had only been a collector for a few months, but I knew it was something special. I tried to buy it, but that was one item she would never sell. She claimed that one of the men in town, who was collector had offered her $50 for it. Back then the 13th edition of the Red Book said it was worth $55 in Fine and $130 in Unc. Of course you have to remember than "Unc." in those days could be a very lose concept. When I was kid, I remember reading in a coin magazine that Bust dollars were "common" in Unc. I dare say a lot of AU, often cleaned up to look "white" qualified, at least on the retail level. There was no third party grading in those days.
Just to put things in context, $50 was a lot more money in those days. Only a couple of years before the people who worked in my father's holly wreath business were paid the minimum wage, which was a dollar an hour. That worked out to $40 for a 40 hour week. Of course FICA and withholding tax came out of that amount.
We were living in the SF Bay area, and, based on the dates of the coins, probably part of the 49 gold rush.
That was 20 years ago, and she still wears them at time, and gets a lot of comments on them.
I also took a dime from her birth year, and silver soldered it to a sterling ring, and formed it to fit her finger.
She jokes that it is her DIME OND ring. Also did that to a pair of dimes.
No loss to the numismatic community, as she was NOT born in Denver in 1916.
Visited the Pawn Stars shop in Vegas a few years ago.
In their coin case was a holed 1895-O Morgan that was otherwise in mid mint state condition.
Attached note stated that the coin was worth $50k without the hole, but near worthless in the holed condition.
....also said, not for sale.
Hell, I would have given them $100!
<< <i>Side note:
Visited the Pawn Stars shop in Vegas a few years ago.
In their coin case was a holed 1895-O Morgan that was otherwise in mid mint state condition.
Attached note stated that the coin was worth $50k without the hole, but near worthless in the holed condition.
....also said, not for sale.
Hell, I would have given them $100! >>
I remember seeing that piece when I was there. Chumlee must have written out that sign.
be taken with a grain of salt), Colonel E.H.R. Green had 100 Morgan dollars holed
and strung together to make himself a belt. They proved too heavy, and his pants
fell down during a dinner of the New York Numismatical Society, sending Green
scampering for cover, cork leg and all.
I don't know the exact date, but the mid 1950's was when the Fed advised banks that people attempting to turn in gold coin should be referred to coin dealers.