What has been your numismatic disaster?
dpoole
Posts: 5,940 ✭✭✭✭✭
With the usual excitement about the 2018 Palladium proof going on, it occurred to me that many of us over time have been caught up in hype that turned out to be a financial disaster down the road. I was personally even more acutely reminded of the fact when my hard drive recently crashed, and I was reinstating records of auction sales over the past year or so.
In my particular case, I initially thought that the Missing Edge Letter dollar errors would generate a lasting passion, because of the prominence (and putative rarity) of that phenomenon in the dollar coins. Of course, I didn't foresee that hardly anyone even knows that dollar coins exist, that Missing Edge Letter errors would turn out to be more common than once thought, and that specimens of MELs once costing thousands of dollars would later sell for under $100. Yowch.
Has that sort of thing happened to you? Tell me your stories, and make me feel better.
Comments
I have never spent enough on coins to categorize anything as a true "disaster"...but I did buy a raw 13-S Type II Buffalo Nickel raw that turned out to have an added mintmark! Doh! Live and learn right?
Losing $5K+ when I could've avoided it. Unfortunately, this has happened more than once.
Buying raw material like the gullible dupe I am, trusting the wrong material or the wrong dealers.....
I accidentally entered an extra 0 on my bid for a 1958 Franklin and now I owe Legend $130 grand!!
You win the message boards today.
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
Selling a 1911 D Quarter Eagle at 58 money and seeing it in 62 PCGS plastic within the year. 20 years later the sting has subsided - thanks for the flashback
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
You mean besides the first time I paid more than face value for a coin?
It was long ago -- more than 15 years -- when I got caught up in top pop "moderns" (1950-ish) small cents. I probably lost $10,000+ on foolish purchases. Today's values.
It was a great lesson and helped me refine my collecting interests and how I spent my coin dollars.
Lance.
When I buy, the price will go down. After I sell, the price always seems to go up. Repeat.
My War Nickels https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/nickels/jefferson-nickels-specialty-sets/jefferson-nickels-fs-basic-war-set-circulation-strikes-1942-1945/publishedset/94452
I lost my ASE pocket piece about 4 years ago.
If we were all the same, the world would be an incredibly boring place.
Tommy
David3142 has sucked all the air out of the thread and it was brilliant.
About 8 years ago the silver eagles came out late in the year and someone mentioned that the quality was poor. I bought a stash of Proof 70's. The air began seeping before they hit my mailbox.
Too many to mention !!!
Not sure if this was a joke or real???
But there would have had to have been a 2nd bidder at 130k to make the final price that high. RIght?
My Coin Blog
My Toned Lincoln Registry Set
my biggest mistake was when I first got back into coins/currency in 2010 after a 40 year hiatus.
and i bought some raw ungraded old currency notes off ebay based on "sellers grades"
I actually convinced myself that I could grade notes based on a book i read.
When I had them professionally graded a while later, I learned a few lessons. That cost me about $5k.
That experience pushed me to rely on things pcgs or ngc graded when I expanded back into coins.
at least for higher priced items. So it may have saved me a lot of $$ down the road.
My Coin Blog
My Toned Lincoln Registry Set
I was logged onto the US Mint site and ready to buy the new proof one ounce palladium eagle. Five minutes before they went on sale, I lost internet connection. There was construction in the area and I'm guessing they accidently cut the underground cable. I wanted one for my collection rather than for flipping. I may get one in a few months after all the hysteria dies down.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
I used a 1943 bronze penny for a place holder until I could find a "real" zink one when I was a kid.
feeling sick again
My Saint Set
I cannot think of any real disasters in my collecting experiences. Sure, some coins are worth less now... and often I paid for a coin a bit above value since I wanted it and it was available. My worst disaster that comes to mind was all the years I purchased mint and proof sets...yeah, that would be it.
Cheers, RickO
Not a disaster but a learning opportunity.
Played the registry game with modern proofs.
Found out that they take tons of space and you overpay for 70s. 69s are fine and much cheaper.
Finally got rid of all that stuff - will never return.
“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!
I have had a number of $500-$100 coin losses, but mostly on the lower end of the estimate.
Collecting years 2001-2011 were almost all gains - transition from raw to holdered. Collecting years 2012-2018 are almost all small losses - factoring higher auction fees and the maturation of the coin holdering era (less grading arbitrage).
It is years and years of small losses adding up. I am probably upside down 10K+ on a 40-50K collection.
I joined this place.
Probably cracking out dozens of coins, because I like them raw, including rattlers, OGH and doilies, no line fatties, old hotel soap anacs, green PCI, and many other third tier holder.
Consolation will be, many will upgrade someday..
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
That’s ok, we don’t like you either.
Collector of randomness. Photographer at PCGS. Lover of Harry Potter.
I have ifnished my type set, and since then just about everything has gone down in value.
I’m not sure if qualifies as a disaster or not but when I first dipped my feet in a few years ago I was more interested in completing my 7070 quickly instead of saving my money for quality pieces. Consequently my first album is about 70% complete but when I pulled out nicer coins for my new album, I pulled out a grand total of 1 coin I thought was good enough. I guess I have one really well circulated set and hopefully I’ll build a much nicer quality examples version now! I paid low prices at least so I didn’t waste to much money in any event.
Collector of randomness. Photographer at PCGS. Lover of Harry Potter.
I've mentioned this before, but I'm a hoarder. If I have one I have several of most things.
I decided once to break my hoarding habit on the 2000 Cheerios Dollars, which I really wanted to buy multiples of. So I told myself $20-$50 was too much for an ebay purchase of a cereal toy.
Makes me sick.
My biggest disaster was more my youth, ignorance, and stupidity. In my first month on ebay i bought a gold coin and i payed for it that which I thought was perfectly priced. I just was stupid at the fact that the item was listed as in Peru and never recieved it after I sent payment by western union to a US address. To say the least I learned my lesson there and look at things very thoroughly before I bid..
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
Registry set for Presidential dollars. What a waste. Sold it half way through the series (great idea). It was like 11th best at the time and I lost a ton of money.
bob
Just to clear this up, yes I was joking, surprisingly there were indeed two bidders at that level.
Speaking of accidental bidding though, I once entered a Lot number (3000ish?) in the bid field for an AU Flying Eagle. I had to call and correct that one.
An early proof SL dollar that has sat untouched in the SDB since I bought it 10+ years ago. I priced it based on PCGS and NGC price guides which I determined later were wildly optimistic.
Not talking about a ton of money but probably enough for a nice vacation somewhere or a few nice additions to my collection. For some strange reason in 2000 I decided it was a good idea to start buying clad proof sets from the mint again. Through 2007 I bought 50 to 100 of each year. I sold most at a loss in 2015 or 16 and the last batch at a even bigger loss earlier this year. Good news is I had the receipts from the mint so I could use the losses against capital gains in other areas.
Second and maybe even bigger blooper was disposal of my incomplete type set when my collecting interests changed. Happened so many years ago that I honestly can't remember when but most of the coins were purchased in the late 60s and early 70s. No condition census stuff but nice coins non the less including a 1794 cent, proof indians, proof shield and liberty nickels, proof or unc liberty seated coinage, proof or unc Barbers, a low grade 1916 LSQ, a 1795 2 leaf dollar, unc Isabella and Spanish Trail commems, seated and trade dollars and who remembers what else. I'm sure they would be worth a tidy sum today. Good news is I'm sure I spent the money on others coins I still own today.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
boom! gotta be the funniest comment I've read in weeks.
Funnier than the guy who posted that he wildly AT'd an MS64 1958 Frankie in 2001 and sold it raw on ebay for 50 bucks, thinking he made a killing?
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Those 2009(?) mint sets with the copper pennies.
I had over 2000 of them at one point.
They just never took off.
I now use my fingernail to pop the cellophane on 2x2's rather than pulling them apart
Steve
Buying coins at a young age for a lot more than they were worth to only sell them at a loss to fuel my toned lincoln registry set
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The exact same thing happened to me but now I have to live with the fact I'm a thief because I never paid them.
Well, there were a few slight differences. It wasn't Legend or a 13 thousand dollar coin. It was a $13 coin. I was bidding at auction for groups of 10 foreign silver minors and didn't notice that one lot was a single coin so I bid as though it was ten. Of course they should have realized I should have caught my error but they sent the coin anyway. They were going to be out $13 or the second highest bid, or I was going to be out $117.
I still feel guilty about never receiving it and have to live with their loss. I toyed with the idea of sending them $30 to cover their trouble but wasn't sure they were trustworthy since they did accept an outrageous bid.
I lost my pocket piece as well @ 4 months ago. Luckily it was just a generic round but still, it had sentimental value to me bc it was passed down to me
I suffered my only major loss (so far) on the Wisconsin quarter errors. I got interested in them and tried several times to win one in an EBay auction and never could. Finally I found a couple of NGC-66 sets in buy it now auctions and pulled the trigger. The prices continued up for a few more days and then started falling. I held them for a few years and sold them for maybe half of what I gave for them. I have more than made up for that several time since then so I can't complain. Live and Learn.
I'm lucky I haven't had any big disasters yet. Some more minor ones include not purchasing things I had the chance to but didn't purchase, and ugly toning from ink on inserts and staples I didn't remove in time. Early on, I paid some tuition to get into the hobby.
Buying NTC coins
Menomonee Falls Wisconsin USA
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistr...dset.aspx?s=68269&ac=1">Musky 1861 Mint Set
I'd have to say buying just about anything from the US Mint directly.
Just money flushed down the terlit!
I know it now.
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:
GSA Certificate 1
GSA Certificate 2
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
The heart attack I had back in the 1970's when I discovered PVC damage on my BUFFS from the folder they were housed in.
Pete
Gradeflation.
I was pursuing a set of MS 66 Business Strike Liberty Nickels over a number of years. Piece by piece. Nice for the grade only, with two exceptions. Did not overpay for anything when purchased. Several years ago, pops exploded. There are no longer better, tougher dates out there if you believe pop reports. Imo, many of the newer holdered MS 66 coins in the series would not have made the grade five or ten years ago.
Prices tanked. My paper loss on this series is probably close to what I am up on my type coins I have held for years. Many of my coins would now grade MS 66+, pursuant to a well known industry source who knows my coins, but not much of a premium for them. Very few 7s are being made in the series.
The continuum of what in this series is graded MS 66 reminds me of the pre-slabbing days re what is an Unc., BU., etc.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
I purchased two Carson City Trade dollars in ICG slabs. An 1874 in EF 40 and an 1875 in AU 53. Sent them in twice (NGC & PCGS) and they came back 'Details' - cleaned. I'm the one who got 'cleaned'.
Bought a raw 16d Mercury dime about 20 years ago for $1000 (low grade) and when I sent it in for grading, it came back in a body bag (counterfeit). Took it back to the dealer and he said it wasn't fake.
But he did take it back in trade for another one that was graded. (I learned a lot about 16d dime diagnostics after that) I suspect he sold it to someone else who probably just stuck it in their coin book. Makes me wonder how many fakes are in coin folders out there.