What's the best thing you ever found in a dealers Junk Box?
MWallace
Posts: 4,344 ✭✭✭✭✭
MWallace
Posts: 4,344 ✭✭✭✭✭
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My son pulled a 1909 S indian cent for $3 out of the Dealer junk box. Its now in a PCGS FN 12 holder.
WS
Goodacre Sacagawea in PCGS plastic (the reslabs) for $5.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Had two back in the day:
1883 No cents Liberty nickel for 8 bucks graded ms-66
1925 peace $ in box of peace $ for 18 bucks grade 66 as well
I have a friend that found a low grade damaged 1794 starred reverse Large Cent! No Date but a few of the stars were visible!
1917 Nickel with a lamination error
COINS FOR SALE AT LINK BELOW (READ CAREFULLY)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/oqym2YtcS7ZAZ73D6
Years ago I read about a guy who got a British 100 pound white banknote out a junk box and redeemed it for full value or spent it.
Friend and colleague Brian Raines picked a 1943 J-2062 experimental cent (rust colored phenolic resin from Durez Chemicals & Plastics) from a junk box for 25¢, which quickly realized $2500.
"Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
http://www.american-legacy-coins.com
1868 shield nickel with a widespread DDO.
http://www.shieldnickels.net
Picked this up raw for $3.00 in a junk bin.
Listed this before, several years ago, hunting 1800's dated foreign coins for Boy Scout, in a dealers foreign junk box, either 4 or 5 for a $1, started finding Barber 25 cent and 50 cent coins, and also seated liberty 25's and 50's. Pulled 40 - 50 coins out, and it was $10
Oh wait, it wasn't that one.
Recently a dealer had several hundred silver dollars. He said my choice for $17 each. Made up three rolls including many better date coins including a decent 21 Peace dollar.
My hand
Yesterday I picked up some early date BU or near BU Franklins at $13 each and a 1918 Merc. 10c in AU for $3 as well as a later date Unc.. If they buy so much at melt surely they will be leaving money on the table.
1905 Denver Mint $20-sized bronze medal from a Denver dealer for $2.
Any number of nice doubled dies and a 1936-D 3 1/2 legged Buffalo 5c in Fine and a 1935 doubled die Buff in AU58. Lots of undergraded stuff, too.
I must pay more attention to junk boxes... if I ever get to another coin show....
Cheers, RickO
It can be tedious to go thru them but rarely it pays off.
You mean the HK-876 So Called Dollar ?
"Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
http://www.american-legacy-coins.com
Yes.
My son, whenever he was about 14, found a crusty 1883 NC V nickel marked AU in a junk box at Baltimore. He bought it, brought it to me and asked: "Is this what I think it is?" We sent it to NCS and then NGC where it was certified PR64CAM.
I found this about 10 years ago in a bargain box. $9 for a 52 proof Franklin... not too shabby for an album filler.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
Found a good numismatist in my junk box a few times.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
This:
Recently found about $300 worth of nice branch mint Buffalo nickels in VF-XF and an AU 1918 Mercury dime at a European show. Paid about 10 euros. I usually don't bother with junk boxes, but this was a good time.
Dealing in Canadian and American coins and historical medals.
Many years ago a coin shop in a Denver suburb had a "junk" bowl of Lincoln Wheat Cents that were 4 cents each or 2 cents each for 50 or more. This bowl had been sitting out in plain sight right next to the cash register for a couple years. One Saturday while waiting in line to pay for my bid board wins, with nothing better to do, I started digging around in it. Right off I found several 1930-D coins in red/brown AU. At that point I figured that I could put together a roll of 50 nice coins. A short while later I came across a 1924-D in VF. Then the big find - a 1922 no D. At that point I just asked how much for the whole bowl ? 85 cents a roll. So I bought it and took it home. I found a second 1922 no D. Both were sent to ANACS (back when they had the photo certificates). Both were the strong reverse type. One graded Fine and the other VF. The rest of the lot contained about two dozen 1919-D red/brown AU/UNC, along with numerous other early coins in nice grades and semi-key dates. That was a big score for me at the time since I had a very meager budget.
Most of my coins came from junk boxes.
Well... ...not junk boxes per se but certainly from the shallow end of the pool. They are stuff dealers don't put in the window if you know what I mean. They come from bank rolls, flea markets, and even garage sales. They come from boxes dealers keep behind the counter and are sometimes traded to me for things like business cards.
Be this as it may I've certainly picked many thousands of coins right out of dealer junk boxes. None of it was worth much when I found it but time has been very good to them. I suppose the best I ever got in terms of monetary value were several Russian '60' and '70's mint set singles I picked up for 6 for a dollar. A dealer had just sold Roubles and 50 k's from several sets and tossed the rest in his junk box. I got about 15 or 20 for a few bucks. They list for as much as $1000 each now. I picked up a chGem 1954 Indian proof set for $4 from a sort of a junk box!!!
I knew they were big scores at the time since they were never seen but I didn't know how big. I just scoured everything looking for anything that was never seen and I especially sought Gems. Now I've got safety deposit boxes full of the "junk".
1873 Seated Half, Open 3 (only 39 graded by PCGS in all grades). PCGS graded it PO01.
If I had it my way, stupidity would be painful!
Junk box searching may be tedious, as is roll searching,metal detecting. but on those occasions it pays off it is worth the hunt.
.
Same here...got about 40 Swiss for 10 cents per coin...
Maybe a stretch to call it a junk box, but at a major Dallas area show (Grapevine) there was a dealer in the corner, who sold US coins. Around the back corner of his table was a pile of binders with foreign coins, and he stated that he did not do foreign coins any more and was dumping them, and they were all (50% off, 75% off, do not remember exactly) Anyway, I found a PAGE of Canadian Silver Dollars, all marked at $10 each, with the silver content alone north of $20 at that point. I pulled all of them, and the commensurately marked halves and quarters, then kept going, pulling the "dollar" sized silver coins from across the world. Pretty soon I had a LARGE pile of coins, enough to where he finally came over to see what I was doing. He picked up a couple, saw the price and the coins,
He kind of shook his head, and told me when I was finished, I got them for what he said, but anyone else was going to pay at least spot for them. The coins did not leave the show, and it was a quick profit over $1000 on that deal, and I kept a few just because they were really nice looking.
1886 AG full date Liberty Nickel for a dime, Also, not in a junk box but at a yard sale the lady had a bunch of paperback books for a dime each and I picked up a Brand New Krause World Coin, I asked if she had any coins and she told me they had already sold those to a dealer
Steve
I've pulled the occasional good coin from the not junk, but overpriced bin at an antique store. I got some 20s mint marks for a Whitman folder set of dimes, an XF 1918, and an AU 50ish 1927. Also got a VF 1946 DDR half from the same place.
Got a 1935 DDR Buffalo in F from the 80 cent bulk Buffalo nickel bin.
When silver was high a few years ago I got a 1794 Gallery Mint five coin set for $25 from a dealer. He wasn't sure if it was really silver or what the content was. Not really a junk bin find but a nice deal!
'31-S cent from a dealer's junk bin for 5 cents. It graded XF and I sold it years later.
For me , it was this.
POST NUBILA PHOEBUS / AFTER CLOUDS, SUN
Love for Music / Collector of Dreck
My local auction house from my hometown held, and still holds, a large weekly sale that runs the whole range of antiques and furniture, from modern used living room sets to fine antiques and quality estate sales. They always have a case full of consigned coins, typically lower end nineteenth century pieces, a miscellaneous box of foreigns, and a tray of shiny but not too desirable Morgans. One thing they never seem to sell out of is old, mid century Whitman folders, the kind of thing that a son or daughter inheriting their parent's estate sends right off for sale. When I was still in junior high, I would thumb through them all the time, looking for the unseen treasure tucked within. One week, I noticed that their usual pile was replaced by a single stack of three folders, which I asked to see. The first two were run of the mill Lincoln wheaties, a few of the more common dates in heavily circulated condition pre-1930, with lots of AU to 1959. Wasn't feeling too hopeful when I opened up the final book, when lo and behold, a complete set of Buffalo nickels, including all six 1913 type/mintmark combos, was laid out in front of my eyes. All were in circulated condition, but they were all there. When the auction went off, only one other person threw out a bid, and I scored it for less than 30 bucks. Big deal for a kid in the eighth grade.
Other than that, I was into Liberty V nickels for quite some time, but I had never purchased the key 1885 or semi-key '86, until I was charged with sorting through my great-uncle's silver hoard he had left my father. Among the hoard of Walking Liberty halves in a personal bank box, a small match case was nestled. In it were a handful of nineteenth century coins: a Liberty Seated quarter, a half dime, and a single Liberty V Nickel: an 1886.